YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ superconductor microbolometer arrays fabricated by silicon micromachining
Linear arrays of YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ transition edge microbolometers have been fabricated on silicon substrates using silicon micromachining to produce microbolometer structures with good thermal isolation. These bolometers, which are 85 mu m*115 mu m*1 mu m, have a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 9*10/sup -13/ W/Hz/sup 1/2/. (neglecting contact noise) and a thermal time constant of 24 ms. With contact noise, the NEP is 9*10/sup -12/ W/Hz/sup 1/2/. This performance indicates that a 2-D staring focal plane array of superconductor microbolometers could have a performance comparable to that of HgCdTe staring arrays without further improvements in the sharpness of the superconducting transition or reductions in the YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ electrical noise. The use of silicon processing technology to fabricate the superconductor microbolometers results in a significant cost advantage over HgCdTe, and there is no long wavelength cutoff dependence in the sensitivity of a superconductor microbolometer.<<ETX>>