IR thermal imaging device using photo-patternable temperature sensitive paint

This paper reports an infrared-to-visible transducer array made of temperature sensitive paint (TSP) for low-cost thermal imaging application. A novel fabrication process using a photo-patternable temperature sensitive paint (PTSP) combined with an SU-8 transfer method was developed. The developped process is simpler than before, and prevents the TSP structure from plasma-induced damage and sticking across a sacrificially-etched gap. The selfsuspended structure as small as 100 pm was successfully fabricated with a large gap of 40 μm from the substrate. The heated object of 300°C was detected with a resolution of about 0.4 mm.