A robust micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) infrared thin film transducer of an ultra-large-scale array was proposed and fabricated on a 4-inch silicon wafer. The silicon substrate and micro cavities were introduced. This novel transducer had excellent mechanical stability, time response, and state-of-the-art pixel scale. It could bear a load of 1700 g and its load pressure was improved by more than 5.24 times and time constant decreased by 50.7% compared to the traditional soft infrared thin film transducer. The array scale of its pixels exceeded 2k × 2k. The simulation and measured results of the transient temperature and radiation intensity were well consistent. Illuminated by a 532 nm laser with a frequency of 50 Hz and 50% duty cycle, the thermal decay time of the proposed transducer was 6.0 ms. A knife-edge image was utilized for spatial resolution test and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the proposed transducer was 24% smaller than the traditional soft one. High-resolution infrared images were generated using the proposed robust transducer. These results proved that the robust transducer was promising in infrared image generation.
Keywords: infrared image generation; infrared transducer; silicon micro cavities; ultra-large-scale array.