Experimental Study on Laser-induced Damage to an Uncooled Microbolometer

Driven by market demand, uncooled infrared bolometer arrays are gradually becoming popular in several fields, and their laser interference has become a major research topic. In this study, based on the structure and working principles of an uncooled microbolometer array, temperature response under laser irradiation is analyzed. An experiment of 10.6 μm continuous laser irradiation of an uncooled polysilicon detector shows that the pixel array enters different damage states. The laser power range and thermal effect mechanism of laser damage are also analyzed. Previous studies have shown that the interference area is larger than the spot area as a result of "heat inversion" and that the influence of laser transmission on the battlefield is equivalent to chopping modulation. T he effects of modulation frequency and duty cycle are also studied. Analytical results show that a continuous laser can achieve a better interference effect on an uncooled microbolometer with a low transmission modulation frequency and large duty ratio.