Study of polymorphous silicon as thermo-sensing film for infrared detectors

In this work we have deposited and characterized pm-Si:H thin films obtained by plasma deposition. Our aim is to use pm-Si:H as thermo-sensing element for infrared (IR) detectors based on un-cooled microbolometers. We have studied the electrical characteristics of pm-Si:H that are figures of merit important for IR detection, as activation energy, thermal coefficient of resistance (TCR), room temperature conductivity (σRT) and responsivity under IR radiation. The influence of the substrate temperature (200 °C and 300 °C) on the pm-Si:H characteristics has been also studied. Our results shown that pm-Si:H is an excellent candidate to be used as thermo-sensing film for microbolometers, due to its large activation energy and TCR, with an improved σRT.