Abstract: A thermal imaging device is manufactured by providing electrodes on opposite sides of a slab of ferroelectric or pyroelectric material. A sheet of electrically and thermally insulating material is bonded to the signal electrode layer on one side of the slab. An electrically conductive layer is provided on the insulating sheet. An array of spaced bores is then formed. Each bore extends through the electrically conductive layer down to the signal layer. The bores are then coated with electrically conductive material to electrically connect the signal electrode layer to the electrically conductive layer. Thereafter, a pattern of channels is formed surrounding the bores. The channels extend through the electrically conductive layer down to the slab, so as to form separate pillars of insulating material from the insulating sheet, and separate signal electrodes from the signal layer. Finally, the electrically conductive coated bores are connected to a circuit substrate by way of solder bumps.

Abstract: A thermal imaging device comprising a ferroelectric or pyroelectric slab bearing an infrared-permeable common electrode on one main surface and a signal electrode structure on the opposite main surface. The signal electrode structure is electrically connected to electrodes of a circuit substrate by means of solder bumps fused to conductors surrounded by a thermal insulating material. A problem in such thermally imaging devices is the heat conducted transverse to the longitudinal axes of the conductors, so that cross talk occurs between adjacent sensing regions. The transverse heat conduction between adjacent conductors is reduced by using conductors which are each in the form of a metal coating on a bore in a respective pillar of thermally insulating material, the pillars are separated by channels.