A PYROELECTRIC MATRIX SENSOR USING PVDF ON SILICON-CONTAINING FET READOUT CIRCUITRY

In this paper the performances of several nine-element infrared matrix sensors using the pyroelectric polymer PVDF are discussed. The improv ement of the sensitivity of the sensors, when using a diode instead of an integrated resistor for the biasing of the readout matrix, was exp erimentally verified. The sensitivity of the sensor covered by a 9 mum PVDF foil increased by a factor of 120 to 6 V/W at 20 Hz. Using a 25 mum foil the sensitivity increased even further to 40 V/W at 20 Hz. Th e S/N ratio improved by a factor of 30 to 70 dB at 20 Hz for an input infrared power of 1.5 mW. Also, a sensor using JFETs for readout was r ealized in a BIFET process. The performance of this matrix sensor was similar to that of the MOSFET matrix sensor.