US Patent 7829854 Pixel architecture for thermal imaging system

A thermal imaging device including: a substrate; and an array of thermally tunable pixel elements for generating a thermal image, each thermally tunable pixel element including: a plurality of thermally tunable filter islands, each of which has a thermally tunable optical filter, wherein each of the plurality of tunable filter islands within that pixel element is thermally isolated from the other tunable filter islands within that tunable pixel element; an absorption structure for absorbing incident optical thermal energy; and a mechanical structure supporting the plurality of tunable filter islands and the absorption structure on the substrate.