Infrared Spectrometer on a Chip

Infrared spectroscopy has ong been recognized as an excellent tool for sending and monitoring chemical species and thermal signatures. There is a need for low-cost devices which can be used in these applications. Advanced Fuel Research Inc (AFR) is presently developing a micro-machined graded interference spectral informtion using transform spectrometry, but which requires an array of detectors to be useful as a spectrometer, while Texas Insruments (TI) is developing a low-cost uncooled amorphous silicon microbolometer array. The combined advantages are 1) the GIF array is a high throughput spectrometer; 2) the microbolometer array provides the low-cost detectors; and 3) all components can be fabricated using standard silicon foundry techniques. The Phase I proposal is to combine AFR's silicon etalon array (GIF) technology with TI's uncooled micro-bolometer array to test the capability of these technologies as an infrared spectrometer. In Phase I, we will fabricate the etalon array and bolometer array separately and mate them with optics and a gas cell to demonstrate the resolution and sensitivity of the spectrometer. Phase II will determine ways to integrate both the etalon and detectors arrays on a single module, and extend the technology to imaging spectrometry.