[12a-B414-1~10] 3.9 Terahertz technologies

▲ [12a-B414-10] Enhancement in thermal responsivities of MEMS bolometers by introducing a critical buckling strain

〇(D)Boqi Qiu¹, Ya Zhang², Naomi Nagai¹, Kazuhiko Hirakawa¹ (1.IIS, Univ. of Tokyo, 2.TUAT)

Keywords:Terahertz bolometer, MEMS resonator, critical buckling strain

Terahertz (THz) detector is one of the crucial components in the THz technologies. Recently, we reported a room temperature, high speed THz bolometer using a GaAs doubly clamped MEMS beam resonator. When the doubly clamped MEMS beam is heated by THz radiation, a thermal stress is induced in the MEMS beam and its resonance frequency decreases. The present device detects the frequency reduction induced by heating and works as a very sensitive thermometer. The thermal responsivity, R, can be improved by modifying the MEMS beam dimensions. A longer MEMS beam accumulates more heat and shows a higher thermal responsivity. However, its response time increases. In this report we propose a new method to improve R without deteriorating the detection speed, by introducing a preloaded compressive strain in the MEMS beam.