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Improved fabrication techniques for infrared bolometersTechniques are described for producing improved infrared bolometers from doped germanium. Ion implantation and sputter metalization have been used to make ohmic electrical contacts to Ge:Ga chips. This method results in a high yield of small monolithic bolometers with very little low-frequency noise. When one of these chips is used as the thermometric element of a composite bolometer, it must be bonded to a dielectric substrate. The thermal resistance of the conventional epoxy bond has been measured and found to be undesirably large. A procedure for soldering the chip to a metalized portion of the substrate is described which reduced this resistance. The contribution of the metal film absorber to the heat capacity of a composite bolometer has been measured. The heat capacity of a NiCr absorber at 1.3 K can dominate the bolometer performance. A Bi absorber has significantly lower heat capacity. A low temperature blackbody calibrator has been built to measure the optical responsivity of bolometers. A composite bolometer system with a throughput of approx. 0.1 sr sq cm was constructed using the new techniques. In negligible background it has an optical NEP of 3.6 10((exp -15) W/sq root of Hz at 1.0 K with a time constant of 20 ms. The noise in this bolometer is white above 2.5 Hz and is somewhat below the value predicted by thermodynamic equilibrium theory. It is in agreement with calculations based on a recent nonequilibrium theory.
Document ID
19930073190
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Lange, A. E.
(California Univ. Berkeley. Lawrence Berkeley Lab, CA, United States)
Kreysa, E.
(Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Radioastronomie Bonn, Germany)
Mcbride, S. E.
(California Univ. Berkeley. Lawrence Berkeley Lab, CA, United States)
Richards, P. L.
(California Univ. Berkeley. Lawrence Berkeley Lab, CA, United States)
Haller, E. E.
(California Univ. Berkeley. Lawrence Berkeley Lab, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1983
Publication Information
Publication: NASA. Ames Research Center, Infrared Detector Technology Workshop
Subject Category
Optics
Accession Number
93N70637
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: DE-AC03-76SF-00098
CONTRACT_GRANT: NASA ORDER W-14606
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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