Far Infrared Low-Cost Uncooled Bolometer for Automotive Use.

A proposed EU regulation requires the automotive industry to develop technologies that will substantially decrease the risk for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians when hit by a vehicle. Automatic brake assist systems, activated by a suitable sensor, will reduce the speed of the vehicle before the impact. Far InfraRed (FIR) detectors are ideal candidates for such sensing systems. In order to enable high volume serial installation, the main development must be focused on cost reduction. Optimizing all aspects of the system, including sensor size, production yield and 3D wafer level vacuum packaging will lower today's "high end" FIR product costs by an order of magnitude. A low-cost FIR infrared bolometer is developed in the Eureka labeled PIMS (Pedestrian Injury Mitigation System) project. In the paper the background and the actual design of the first demonstrator to be finished in 2008 are described in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]