Present Status of Polymer: Ceramic Composites for Pyroelectric Infrared Detectors

Abstract

‘Ferroelectrics:Polymer’ composites can be considered an established substitute to conventional electro-ceramics and to ferroelectric polymers. The composites have unique blend of polymeric properties such as mechanical flexibility, high strength, formability, and low cost with high electro-active properties of ceramic materials. It has attracted considerable interest because of their potential use in pyroelectric infrared detecting devices and piezoelectric transducers. These flexible sensors and transducers may eventually be useful for NASA crew launch vehicles and crew exploration vehicles being developed for their health monitoring applications. In the light of many technologically important applications in this field; it is worthwhile to present an overview of the pyroelectric infrared detector theory, models to predict dielectric behavior and pyroelectric coefficient in conjunction with the concept of connectivity and fabrication techniques of biphasic composites. An elaborate review of ‘Pyroelectric: Polymer’ composite materials investigated to date for their potential use in pyroelectric infrared detectors is presented.

Keywords:

• Pyroelectric composite materials
• Pyroelectric Infrared detector
• electro-ceramics

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors gratefully acknowledge the partial support of the present work by US Army SMDC grant # DASG60-03-1-0003, NSF HBCU RISE project # HRD-0531183. One of the authors (MDA) would like to acknowledge support from NASA Administrator's Fellowship Program (NAFP) through United Negro College Fund Special Programs (UNCFSP) Corporation under their contract # NNG066C58A. This work would have not been possible without the assistance of graduate students, in particular, Ms Padmaja Guggilla.

Notes

^†Also at Materials Research Lab./MRI, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA16802, USA.