Shape memory polymer resonators as highly sensitive uncooled infrared detectors

Ulas Adiyan, Tom Larsen, Juan José Zárate, Luis Guillermo Villanueva and Herbert Shea ()
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Ulas Adiyan: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Tom Larsen: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Juan José Zárate: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Luis Guillermo Villanueva: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Herbert Shea: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Uncooled infrared detectors have enabled the rapid growth of thermal imaging applications. These detectors are predominantly bolometers, reading out a pixel’s temperature change due to infrared radiation as a resistance change. Another uncooled sensing method is to transduce the infrared radiation into the frequency shift of a mechanical resonator. We present here highly sensitive resonant infrared sensors, based on thermo-responsive shape memory polymers. By exploiting the phase-change polymer as transduction mechanism, our approach provides 2 orders of magnitude improvement of the temperature coefficient of frequency. Noise equivalent temperature difference of 22 mK in vacuum and 112 mK in air are obtained using f/2 optics. The noise equivalent temperature difference is further improved to 6 mK in vacuum by using high-Q silicon nitride membranes as substrates for the shape memory polymers. This high performance in air eliminates the need for vacuum packaging, paving a path towards flexible non-hermetically sealed infrared sensors.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12550-6

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