2. Resistive thermal detectors

2.1 Operating principle

A bolometer is a thermal detector that uses a thermistor as a thermometer material. The variation in resistance of each pixel is then measured to determine the infrared energy incident on each pixel. The result is an image that reflects the differences in temperature and emissivity present in the scene.

Complete modeling of a microbolometer is extremely complex, due to the large number of parameters involved and their mutual influences.

The simplest model does not take into account the Joule effect induced by the reading of the electrical resistance that makes up the bolometer. Such a simplified model does, however, make it possible to understand the effects of the various parameters available to the user....