We report on the effects of thermal annealing on the structural and electrical properties of Vanadium Oxide (V OX) thin films. The annealing temperature and duration as well as the annealing environment were varied to study the effect of such variations on the V OX film resistivity, temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), and electrical low frequency noise (1/f). The experiments were performed with the device under different experimental conditions that include vacuum, oxygen and an inert gas (argon) environment. The device performance was studied for three annealing different temperatures: 100°C, 200°C and 250°C, with annealing times varying from 15 min to 30 min. The results show a consistent increase in resistance, with larger changes following higher temperature anneals. The influence on TCR and noise was more significant for devices annealed at 200°C or above in vacuum or in argon. X-ray diffraction studies (XRD) show that high annealing temperatures mark the onset of micro-crystallinity, with various stable and metastable phases appearing in the amorphous V OX film matrix.
Thermal conductance is a controlling parameter for heat transfer in microbolometer based infrared imaging systems. The thermal conductance can be measured by monitoring the microbolometer temperature change induced by a known electrical power excitation due to constant voltage or current Joule heating at thermal equilibrium. The temperature change is calculated from the corresponding resistance change by using the conduction mechanism for the microbolometer thermosensitive material. For amorphous semiconductor materials, such as VOx and amorphous silicon, electrical conduction is by Variable Range Hopping (VRH), specifically, Efros-Shklovskii VRH for VOx, and Mott VRH for amorphous silicon. Calculation results are compared to published thermal conductance measurements based on linear approximations of the electrical conductivity temperature dependence.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.