There is a demand for increasing the spatial resolution and swath width in Earth observation applications. To improve
the resolution and swath width, increased thermal isolation and decreased pitch of the microbolometer need to be
achieved. This paper reports on the investigation of different structures of highly insulated 35 μm pitch microbolometers.
Each structure consists of two suspended Si3N4 platforms with the upper level containing the bolometer element and the
lower level containing hinges of varying length. A numerical model was derived to predict the figures of merit of the
structures prior to microfabrication. Experimental characterization was performed on microfabricated devices,
confirming the computed results. The thermal conductance, in the range from 85 to 134 nW/K, varies inversely with the
hinge length and the best responsivity was achieved on the sample with the longest hinge. The corresponding detectivity
and response time were respectively 9 × 108 cmHz1/2/W and 8 ms approximately.
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