# Thermal imaging



## ironman (Apr 6, 2011)

Does anyone know of a good text on thermal imaging, ie how to process a microbolo meter. They are EXTREMELY expensive and just doing some quick internet research it looks like one can be made in 10-15 steps, the only expensive piece of equipment in the process is the furnace and the plasma etcher but if it does not require doping the furnace is not nessicary and the plasma etching can be replaced with chemical etching, the vacuum pump and metal deposition might be a little expensive but not cost prohibitive.

These things are like 10 grand from FLIR and I think they can be made for MUCH cheaper, how sweet would be be to have a thermal scope. I am taking EE classes right now to get the prereqs for a MS in EE and this is my special interest but I was just wondering if anyone here had detailed knowlage of the masking steps or a text that details that out. I have taken microelectronics in my undergrad. This is not really cutting edge stuff, thermal imaging has been around since the movie preditor and even before that.

If they do in fact require doping I am wondering if there are any alternatives to buying a 4 thousand dollar oven, maybe there are kilns that can can be rented for a time or something like that. Once you had the micro bolo meter you could interface it with a micro controlor and an LCD screen which can be bought for peanuts on sparkfun.com and you would have to have a housing built and figure out a way to zoom in. I am surprised no one else is making microbolo meters for like 300$ yet, they are far less complicated than a pentium in your computer, so much so that I think its possible to build one in your "garage", you may have to make it a little bigger to keep the pixals high and get good resolution but thats not a big deal.


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