Infrared emitters are becoming increasingly important as light sources for gas sensing applications in process and environmental monitoring. The advantage over classical filaments is the high miniaturizability, the achievable dynamics (= fast signal modulation), higher tolerance to vibrations as well as the high cost reduction potential due to simultaneous manufacturing and packaging of thousands of components on wafer level.
MEMS-based standard IR emitters have a low surface emissivity of partly less than 40%. In this new research project, the emissivity in the center of the emitter membrane is to be increased to 80%. This should increase the radiant intensity to the point where it is equivalent to high performance IR emitters. The IR emitters will be prefabricated using standard technology. Subsequently, the function of the IR emitters is to be significantly improved in a back-end coating process. This modified process is intended to significantly reduce manufacturing costs and at the same time increase the quality so that it can be equivalent to high-performance IR emitters.
The research and development work in the “Spotlight with Color” (StraMiFa) project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
Funding code: 49MF220022
