Ariel is the M4 mission of the ESA’s Cosmic Vision Program 2015-2025, whose aim is to characterize by lowresolution transit spectroscopy the atmospheres of over one thousand warm and hot exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. It has been selected by ESA in March 2018 and adopted in November 2020 to be flown, then, in 2029. It is the first survey mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of the atmospheres of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, in order to enable planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The Payload (P/L) is based on a cold section (PLM – Payload Module) working at cryogenic temperatures and a warm section, located within the Spacecraft (S/C) Service Vehicle Module (SVM) and hosting five warm units operated at ambient temperature (253-313 K). The P/L and its electrical, electronic and data handling architecture has been designed and optimized to perform transit spectroscopy from space during primary and secondary planetary eclipses in order to achieve a large set of unbiased observations to shed light and fully understand the nature of exoplanets atmospheres, retrieving information about planets interior and determining the key factors affecting the formation and evolution of planetary systems.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope project is NASA's next flagship astrophysics mission to study dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets along with the innumerable topics that will be enabled by the infrared survey telescope's instruments. The Wide Field Instrument contains a focal plane of 18 newly developed Teledyne H4RG-10 HgCdTe detectors. Roman's focal plane completed its first system level thermal vacuum test at NASA Goddard in 2022, when an increase in dark current compared to component level testing was observed for several detectors. Roman chartered an anomaly review board (ARB) and in collaboration with Teledyne undertook a testing program to help identify possible root cause and select from Roman's spare inventory suitable replacement detectors for devices that had significantly degraded. A possible root cause was determined by the ARB along with recommendations for how to prevent further degradation. We summarize the initial observation of the detector anomaly, present the detector testing strategy to find suitable spares and provide evidence of root cause, share the general findings of the ARB, and show new data showing the improved dark current performance.
Based on the recent success of our strained-layer superlattice (SLS)-based infrared (IR) camera that performed Earth imaging from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2019 we have built, what we consider, to be the next generation multi-band SLS imaging system. The Compact Thermal Imager (CTI) was installed on the Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3) and attached to the exterior of the ISS. From this location we were able to capture 15 million images of a multitude of fires around the globe in 2019. This unexpected trove of data initiated quite a bit of scientific interest to further utilize this imaging capability but would include features to more precisely monitor terrestrial fires and other surface phenomena. To this end, we developed a technique to install specific bandpass filters directly onto the SLS detector hybrid assembly. Utilizing this technique we have built a CTI-2 camera system with two filters, 4 and 11μm, and have made a second detector assembly with six filter bands from 4- 12μm. This second system will also be used to supplement Landsat remote imaging monitoring approximate land surface temperatures, monitor evapotranspiration, sea ice and glacier dynamics. The CTI-2 camera is based on a 1,024x1,024 (1kx1k) format SLS detector hybridized to a FLIR ISC0404 readout integrated circuit (ROIC). The six band SLS focal plane array is based on the 640x512 FLIR ISC 9803 ROIC. This camera system is based on the Landsat 8 and 9 Thermal IR Sensors (TIRS) instrument and one of its purposes is to perform ground truthing for the Landsat 8/9 data at higher spectral resolution. Both Landsat TIRS instruments are dual band thermal IR sensors centered on 11 and 12μm (each with about a 1μm bandpass). Both of our SLS systems utilize a Ricor K548 cryocooler. To streamline costs and development time we used commercial optics and both commercial and custom NASA electronic components. A primary feature of these camera systems is the incorporation of specific filters to collect fire data at ~3.9μm and thermal data at ~11μm. The CTI- 2 instrument is designed for 37 m /pixel spatial resolution from 410km orbit (ISS orbit). In this paper, we will present the design and performance of the focal plane, optics, electronics and mechanical structure of the dual-band CTI-2 and the focal plane performance of the six-band focal plane.
We describe the design of the cryogenic packaging and testing of the Sensor Chip Electronics (SCE) delivered to the Near-Infrared Spectro-Photometer (NISP) instrument for the ESA Euclid mission. The Euclid mission will observe 15 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky1 from the Sun{Earth Lagrange point L2. The payload of the Euclid spacecraft consists of a telescope with 1.2m SiC primary mirror, passively cooled to ~ 125 K, and two focal plane instruments, the visible instrument (VIS) and NISP. At the heart of the NISP instrument is a 4 x 4 mosaic focal plane of Teledyne H2RG infrared detector arrays held at 100K linked using a cryogenic ex cable (CFC) to the SCE at as low as 130 K. The SCE uses the Teledyne SIDECAR Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) to provide timing, biases, communications, and data conversion for operation of the HAWAII 2 RG (H2RG) Sensor Chip Assembly (SCA) and interfaces to the NISP warm electronics. The SIDECAR ASIC is mounted onto a Silicon Fanout (SiFO) and Invar table support structure and then wirebonded to a printed wiring board assembly (PWB) with passive components and 91-pin nanoconnectors. The PWB is housed within an enclosure which serves as the mechanical and thermal interface to the NISP Support Structure. The qualification and flight SCE were assembled and subjected to environmental testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and then calibrated and tested with the flight lot SCA and CFC at Goddard Space Flight Centers Detector Characterization Lab. The results of the qualification and reliability tests as well as the measured characteristics of the flight SCE will be summarized.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) formerly known as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope will answer fundamental questions about the evolution of dark energy over time and expand the catalog of known exoplanets into new regions of parameter space. Using a Hubble-sized mirror and 18 newly developed HgCdTe 4K × 4K photodiode arrays (H4RG-10), the Roman Space Telescope will measure the positions and shapes of hundreds of millions of galaxies, the light curves of thousands of supernovae, and the microlensing signals of over a thousand exoplanets toward the bulge of the Galaxy. These measurements require unprecedented sensitivity and characterization of the Wide Field Instrument, particularly its detectors. The Roman project undertook an extensive detector development program to create focal plane arrays that meet these science requirements. We present the performance characteristics of these TRL-6 demonstration devices.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) formerly known as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope will answer fundamental questions about the evolution of dark energy over time and expand the catalog of known exoplanets into new regions of parameter space. Using a Hubble-sized mirror and 18 newly developed HgCdTe 4K × 4K photodiode arrays (H4RG-10), the Roman Space Telescope will measure the positions and shapes of hundreds of millions of galaxies, the light curves of thousands of supernovae, and the microlensing signals of over a thousand exoplanets toward the bulge of the Galaxy. These measurements require unprecedented sensitivity and characterization of the Wide Field Instrument, particularly its detectors. The Roman project undertook an extensive detector development program to create focal plane arrays that meet these science requirements. These prototype detectors have been characterized and their performance demonstrated in a relevant space-like environment (thermal vacuum, vibration, acoustic, and radiation testing), advancing the H4RG-10’s technology readiness level (TRL) to TRL-6. We present the performance characteristics of these TRL-6 demonstration devices.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Electrons, James Webb Space Telescope, Spectroscopy, Mercury cadmium telluride, Detection and tracking algorithms, Photometry, Space telescopes
Snowballs are transient events observed in HgCdTe detectors with a sudden increase of charge in a few pixels. They appear between consecutive reads of the detector, after which the affected pixels return to their normal behavior. The origin of the snowballs is unknown, but it was speculated that they could be the result of alpha decay of naturally radioactive contaminants in the detectors, but a cosmic ray origin cannot be ruled out. Even though previous studies predicted a low rate of occurrence of these events, and consequently, a minimal impact on science, it is interesting to investigate the cause or causes that may generate snowballs and their impact in detectors designed for future missions. We searched for the presence of snowballs in the dark current data in Euclid and Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) detectors tested in the Detector Characterization Laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center. Our investigation shows that for Euclid and WFIRST detectors, there are snowballs that appear only one time, and others than repeat in the same spatial localization. For Euclid detectors, there is a correlation between the snowballs that repeat and bad pixels in the operational masks (pixels that do not fulfill the requirements to pass spectroscopy, photometry noise, quantum efficiency, and/or linearity). The rate of occurrence for a snowball event is about 0.9 snowballs/hr. in Euclid detectors (for the ones that do not have associated bad pixels in the mask), and about 0.7 snowballs/hr. in PV3 Full Array Lot WFIRST detectors.
Cleanliness specifications for infrared detector arrays are usually so stringent that effects are neglibile. However, the specifications determine only the level of particulates and areal density of molecular layer on the surface, but the chemical composition of these contaminants are not specified. Here, we use a model to assess the impact on system quantum efficiency from possible contaminants that could accidentally transfer or cryopump to the detector during instrument or spacecraft testing and on orbit operation. Contaminant layers thin enough to meet typical specifications, < 0.5μgram/cm2, have a negligible effect on the net quantum efficiency of the detector, provided that the contaminant does not react with the detector surface, Performance impacts from these contaminant plating onto the surface become important for thicknesses 5 - 50μgram/cm2. Importantly, detectable change in the ”ripple” of the anti reflection coating occurs at these coverages and can enhance the system quantum efficiency. This is a factor 10 less coverage for which loss from molecular absorption lines is important. Thus, should contamination be suspected during instrument test or flight, detailed modelling of the layer on the detector and response to very well known calibrations sources would be useful to determine the impact on detector performance.
In support of the European space agency (ESA) Euclid mission, NASA is responsible for the evaluation of the H2RG mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) detectors and electronics assemblies fabricated by Teledyne imaging systems. The detector evaluation is performed in the detector characterization laboratory (DCL) at the NASA Goddard space flight center (GSFC) in close collaboration with engineers and scientists from the jet propulsion laboratory (JPL) and the Euclid project. The Euclid near infrared spectrometer and imaging photometer (NISP) will perform large area optical and spectroscopic sky surveys in the 0.9-2.02 μm infrared (IR) region. The NISP instrument will contain sixteen detector arrays each coupled to a Teledyne SIDECAR application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The focal plane will operate at 100K and the SIDECAR ASIC will be in close proximity operating at a slightly higher temperature of 137K. This paper will describe the test configuration, performance tests and results of the latest engineering run, also known as pilot run 3 (PR3), consisting of four H2RG detectors operating simultaneously. Performance data will be presented on; noise, spectral quantum efficiency, dark current, persistence, pixel yield, pixel to pixel uniformity, linearity, inter pixel crosstalk, full well and dynamic range, power dissipation, thermal response and unit cell input sensitivity.
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