Abstract: A reference bolometer and the associated methods for fabricating a reference bolometer and for fabricating an array of bolometers are provided. The reference bolometer is fabricated such that a thermally conductive layer underlies the detector element, i.e., the absorber and transducer elements, and is encapsulated by a protective coating. The protective coating serves to prevent the thermally conductive layer underlying the detector element of the reference bolometer from being etched during the process of etching or otherwise removing other portions of the thermally conductive layer that underlie the detector elements of the imaging bolometers. As such, the thermally conductive layer of the reference bolometer maintains the desired thermal communication between the detector element and the substrate such that the output of the reference bolometer is unaffected by incident radiation.