ABSTRACT

Bolometer is a highly sensitive thermal detector used for detection of heat or electromagnetic
radiation. It has vast applications extending their range to the field of military, medical,
astronomy, particle physics and in day-to-day use thus devising it as a significant part of our
society. As bolometers measure a change in temperature, the incident radiation must be
modulated. This allows the bolometer to excite and relax, thus a measurement of the change in
resistance is made that corresponds to the energy of the incident radiation. The speed at which
the bolometer reacts to this temperature change is dependent upon several factors that can be
altered, if desired, at the time the system is being calibrated. They may also be subdivided
according to whether they operate at room or cryogenic temperature. Most single-element
bolometers are connected in a voltage-divider network. A stable voltage supply is used to
develop a current and consequent voltage drop across the two resistors. One is the detector, while
the other should be a matching element to eliminate signals arising from a change in the ambient
temperature. It should match the detector in both resistance and in the temperature coefficient of
resistance. Usually another, but blinded, detector is used. Bolometer is made of an absorber of
heat capacity, thermally connected with conductance to a heat sink. The absorber is a thin film of
conducting material evaporated on a dielectric substrate. It is essential for the film to have a
linear correlation between resistance and temperature. Incident power on the absorber changes
the film temperature, which in turn changes its resistance. By sending a current into the
bolometer the potential difference across the bolometer can be measured. The temperature of the
incident power can then be determined. The basic operation principle is that it measures the
incident radiation power through absorption resulting a specific change in a measurable quantity.
This present work aims at designing of a MEMS based bolometer analysing the variation of
thermal conductivity in response to the temperature by using COMSOL Multiphysics . Here the
temperature change occurs due to the incident infrared radiation. The proposed bolometer design
is efficient of operating at elevated temperatures (>273 K) and thus can be implemented in a
Wheatstone bridge to make it a modifiable detector for better sensitivity.