TEST VEHICLE FOR A WAFER-SCALE THERMAL PIXEL SCENE SIMULATOR

A chip sized test vehicle has been created to experiment with the tech nology and design required for two wafer scale thermal pixel displays: a Thermal Pixel Dynamic Scene Simulator and a Visual-to-Thermal Conve rter. The 4.7 x 4.7 mm device contains a 2 x 4 array of micromachined thermal pixels, optical detectors, A/D converters, digital pixel contr ol circuitry, and laser links for interconnection. Laser produced defe ct avoidance schemes allowed testing and harvesting for global redunda ncy of the control circuitry and local transducer substitution. Also t he laser linked signal buses flexibility was used to arrange the chip in different thermal pixel display configurations. Two chips were lase r interconnected, one as fabricated and another where anisotropic etch ing had created a suspended plate holding the polysilicon resistor the rmal pixels. From the electrical and laser interconnection points of o peration there was no difference between the etched and unetched circu its.