Erika C Vote

52987485, Mar 29, 1994

Jun 15, 1992

7/898682

Thomas W. Kenny - Glendale CA
William J. Kaiser - West Covina CA
Judith A. Podosek - Arcadia CA
Erika C. Vote - Golden CO
Howard K. Rockstad - Thousand Oaks CA
Joseph K. Reynolds - Pasadena CA

California Institute of Technology - Pasadena CA

G01J 500
H01J 3700

2503381

An uncooled infrared tunneling sensor in which the only moving part is a diaphragm which is deflected into contact with a micromachined silicon tip electrode prepared by a novel lithographic process. Similarly prepared deflection electrodes employ electrostatic force to control the deflection of a silicon nitride, flat diaphragm membrane. The diaphragm exhibits a high resonant frequency which reduces the sensor's sensitivity to vibration. A high bandwidth feedback circuit controls the tunneling current by adjusting the deflection voltage to maintain a constant deflection of the membrane which would otherwise change deflection depending upon incident infrared radiation. The resulting infrared sensor will meet or exceed the performance of all other broadband, uncooled, infrared sensors and can be miniaturized to pixel dimensions smaller than 100. mu. m. The technology is readily implemented as a small-format linear array suitable for commercial and spacecraft applications.

54364523, Jul 25, 1995

Jun 21, 1993

8/079507

Thomas W. Kenny - Glendale CA
William J. Kaiser - West Covina CA
Judith A. Podosek - Arcadia CA
Erika C. Vote - Pasadena CA
Richard E. Muller - Sunland CA
Paul D. Maker - Arcadia CA

California Institute of Technology - Pasadena CA

G01J 500
H01J 3700

2503381

An uncooled infrared tunneling sensor in which the only moving part is a diaphragm which is deflected into contact with a micromachined silicon tip electrode prepared by a novel lithographic process. Similarly prepared deflection electrodes employ electrostatic force to control the deflection of a silicon nitride, flat diaphragm membrane. The diaphragm exhibits a high resonant frequency which reduces the sensor's sensitivity to vibration. A high bandwidth feedback circuit controls the tunneling current by adjusting the deflection voltage to maintain a constant deflection of the membrane. The resulting infrared sensor can be miniaturized to pixel dimensions smaller than 100. mu. m. An alternative embodiment is implemented using a corrugated membrane to permit large deflection without complicated clamping and high deflection voltages. The alternative embodiment also employs a pinhole aperture in a membrane to accommodate environmental temperature variation and a sealed chamber to eliminate environmental contamination of the tunneling electrodes and undesireable accoustic coupling to the sensor.