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The deformation of microcantilever-based infrared detectors during thermal cycling

Uncooled microcantilever-based infrared (IR) detectors have recently gained interest due to their low noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD), while concurrently maintaining low costs. These properties have made them available for a wider range of applications. However, the curvature induced by residual strain mismatch severely compromises the device's performance. Therefore, to meet performance and reliability requirements, it is important to fully understand the deformation of IR detectors. In this study, bimaterial (SiNx/Al) microcantilever-based IR detectors were fabricated using surface micromachining with polyimide as a sacrificial layer. Thermo-mechanical deformation mechanisms were studied through the use of thermal cycling. A temperature chamber with accurate temperature control and an interferometer microscope were adopted in this study for thermal cycling and full-field curvature measurements. It was found that thermal cycling reduced the residual strain mismatch within the bimaterial structure and thus flattened the microcantilever-based IR detectors. Specifically, thermal cycling with a maximum temperature of 295 °C resulted in a 97% decrease in curvature of the microcantilever-based IR detectors upon return to room temperature. The thermoelastic deformation of the IR detectors was modeled using both finite element method (FEM) and analytical methods. A modified analytical solution based on plate theory was established to describe the thermoelastic mechanical responses by using a correction factor derived from FEM. Although in the current study Al and SiNx were chosen for the application of microcantilever-based IR detectors, the general experimental protocol and modeling approach can be applied to describe thermoelastic mechanical responses of bimaterial devices with different materials. Toward the end of this paper, we studied the correction factors in the modified analytical solution while varying parameters such as Young's modulus ratio, thickness ratio and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch to investigate the influences of these parameters.