Abstract
In this paper we present the characterization of a practical thermopile sensor, using extensive experimental results of measurement of heat conductance of thermopile produced by a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible process and front-side Si bulk etching. Several parameters, such as width of polysilicon, length of thermopile, number of thermocouples, overlap length of hot junction on absorber and area of absorption layer, are investigated. We also use a heater on the central membrane in order to heat the membrane. Both the power source from a blackbody IR source and the heater on the membrane are selected to heat the membrane. The device properties in vacuum and in the atmosphere were measured in order to distinguish the effect of heat conductance due to gas convection. In this study, the thermal characterization of the thermopile sensor is conducted. A model is established to predict the properities of device with some geometric and process-related factors are coupled.