Abstract
We describe the design, fabrication, and characterization of arrays of uncooled infrared and terahertz
micromechanical detectors that utilize SiO2 as a main structural material. Materials with highly
dissimilar coefficients of thermal expansion, namely, Al and SiO2, were used to form folded
bimaterial regions. This approach improved the detector sensitivity by 12 times compared to
SiNx-based detectors of similar shape and size. Two types of structural SiO2 layers were
investigated: thermally grown and plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposited SiO2. Fabrication of
the detector arrays relied on a straightforward process flow that involved three photolithography
steps and no wet etching. The noise equivalent temperature difference intrinsic to the detectors
fabricated during this work can reach 3.8 mK when excluding any contribution from the optical
readout used to interrogate the arrays.
