CHARACTERISTICS OF PYROELECTRIC INFRARED ARRAY DETECTOR MADE OF PBTIO3 CERAMICS

A one-dimensional pyroelectric array detector as a multi-element infra red sensor has been developed by using a new sheet forming method made of PbTiO3 bulk ceramics. This simple fabrication process is cost effe ctive and enables us to control the film thickness accurately; thus de creasing the sensitivity variations that exist in one detector and amo ng different detectors to within 10%. A pyroelectric detector responsi vity of 2 x 10(4) V/W can be obtained at 10 Hz chopping frequency. A s pecific detectivity DI of 0.8 x 10(8) cm.Hz(1/2)/W has been achieved. Furthermore. this detector has a sufficient sensitivity for performanc es at high chopping speeds up to 100 Hz. The time constant of this pyr oelectric detector is about 8.6 ms, so the detector has a shorter resp onse time compared with the commercially available conventional pyroel ectric detector. The cross talk, which influences the output for the a djacent elements, is less than 10%. By using this high performance pyr oelectric array detector, the thermal sources at lower temperatures th an environmental conditions can be detected with high sensitivity, as much as the thermal sources at higher temperatures. The output voltage for the detector was gradually decreased as the atmospheric temperatu re increased.