Thermo-Sensitive Ba0.64Sr0.36TiO3 Thin Film Capacitors for Dielectric Type Uncooled Infrared Sensors

Ba_0.64Sr_0.36TiO₃ (BST) thin films are prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si₃N₄/SiO₂/Si substrates by a sol-gel method. Thermo-sensitive BST thin film capacitors with a Metal-Ferroelectrics-Metal (M-F(BST)-M) structure are fabricated as the active elements of dielectric type uncooled infrared sensors. XRD are employed to analyze the crystallographic structures of the films. AFM observations reveal a smooth and dense surface of the films with an average grain size of about 35 nm. Rapid temperature annealing (RTA) process is a very efficient way to improve crystallization quality. The preferable annealing temperature is 800°C for 1 min. The butterfly shaped C-V curves of the capacitors indicate the films have a ferroelectric nature. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the films at 100 kHz are 450 and 0.038, respectively. At 25°C, where the thermo-sensitive capacitors work, the temperature coefficient of dielectric constant (TCD) is about 5.9 %/°C. These results indicate that the capacitors with sol-gel derived BST thin films are promising to develop dielectric type uncooled infrared sensors.