An infrared sensor with a microstructure has a multiplicity of sensor rods protruding from a sensor base and arranged axially parallel to one another. Each of the sensor rods is designed as a thermocouple, in that a first rod end, arranged on the sensor base, is electrically connected to an opposite free second rod end by both a first and a second electrically conductive rod element. The two rod elements have a different Seebeck coefficient, and the first rod element is formed as a hollow profile and the second rod element is arranged in the first rod element such that each thermocouple is formed as a single rod with a small standing area on the sensor base.