A new setup for detector characterization consisting of a cryostat, tunable collimated light source, and versatile data acquisition system is currently being commissioned. The setup enables testing optical and infrared sensors in the 400 to 14000 nm wavelength range and the devices under test can be cooled to cryogenic temperatures of down to 50 K under vacuum condition. 32 spectral band passes with bandwidths of λ{ΔΛ ≥ 50 are available for spectral characterization, covering the full range from 400 to 14000 nm. The setup can be used to characterize responsivity, detectivity, noise equivalent temperature difference, dark current, linearity, dynamic range, well depth, and pixel response non-uniformity. We report on first results for the characterization of imaging sensors using Teledyne’s CCD47-20 as the device under test for which camera gain, linearity error, full well capacity, read noise, dark noise, and quantum efficiency have been determined. Furthermore, the performance of the light source and cryostat system will be discussed.
KEYWORDS: Microbolometers, Photodiodes, Spectral response, Dark current, Signal to noise ratio, Light sources, Data acquisition, Collimators, Quantum sensors, CMOS sensors
We report on the design of a new laboratory setup for testing the performance of optical and thermal sensors at temperatures ranging from 50 K to 350 K and pressures ranging from ambient atmospheric pressures down to 10-5 mbar. The system will be built around a closed-cycle cooled cryostat which houses the device under test. Optical stimuli will be provided by a calibrated selectable light source which provides collimated light from an integrating sphere or a cavity blackbody. Bandpass filters as well as imaging targets can be selected for determining the spectral response and modular transfer function. Data acquisition from the device under test will be accomplished using an automated test bench based on a custom-made FPGA interface adaption board.
The Fast Front End Electronic (F-FEE) is a unit of the payload for the PLATO ESA mission. PLATO aims at finding and characterising a large number of extra solar planetary systems. In order to achieve its scientific objectives, PLATO relies on the analysis of continuous time series of high precision photometric measurements of stellar fluxes. The scientific payload of PLATO is based on a multi-telescope approach, involving a set of 24 ”normal” cameras working at a cadence of 25 s optimized to monitor stars fainter than magnitude 8 (photometry on saturated stars down to magnitude 4 will be possible), plus two ”fast” cameras working at a cadence of 2.5 s, and observing stars in the V range from 4 to 8. Beside providing star brightness measurements for bright stars, the ”fast” cameras also work as fine guidance sensors for the attitude control system of the Spacecraft. Each ”fast” camera is equipped with 4 CCDs with 4510 × 2255 light sensitive pixels each, working in frame transfer mode. In view of the instrument development an Engineering Model (EM) of the F-FEE has been manufactured, assembled and tested. The performance tests have been conducted using artificially generated CCD signals as well as real CCDs, proving the capability of the electronics to satisfy the demanding requirements to fine guidance but also science requirements of the PLATO mission.
Entire Visible Sky (EnVisS) is one of the payload proposed for the ESA selected F-Class mission Comet Interceptor. The main aim of the mission is the study of a dynamically new comet, or an interstellar object, entering the inner solar system. The EnVisS camera is designed to capture the entire sky in some visible wavelength bands while the spacecraft passes through the comet's tail environment. EnVisS optical head is composed of a fisheye lens with a field of view of 180° x 40° coupled with an imaging detector equipped with both band-pass and polarimetric filters. Very wide angle lens, as a fisheye, must be necessarily anamorphic, i. e. its focal length must change along the field of view, in order to fit a finite-size imaging detector. This anamorphic distortion is introduced by the optical designer, depending on the desired applications. Each possible distortion bring along different field of view mapping and this must be taken into account by the scientific/metrological user, because the plate scale is variable along the focal plane. To obtain useful scientific information from fisheye images (astrometry, flux calibration and brightness measurements), a precise determination of the mapping function has to be accurately determined. In this paper we describe the expected distortion map of the EnVisS camera.
This paper, “A compact very high resolution camera (VHRC) for Earth and planetary exploration using a large array (7k x 8k) CCD," was presented as part of International Conference on Space Optics—ICSO 1997, held in Toulouse, France.
This paper presents the mission profile as well as the optical configuration of the space-borne AsteroidFinder telescope. Its main objective is to retrieve asteroids with orbits interior to the earth’s orbit. The instrument requires high sensitivity to detect asteroids with a limiting magnitude of equal or larger than 18.5mag (V-Band) and astrometric accuracy of 1arcsec (1σ). This requires a telescope aperture greater than 400cm2, high image stability, detector with high quantum efficiency (peak > 90%) and very low noise, which is only limited by zodiacal background. The telescope will observe the sky between 30° and 60° in solar elongation. The telescope optics is based on a Cook type TMA. An effective 2°×2° field of view (FOV) is achieved by a fast F/3.4 telescope with near diffraction-limited performance. The absence of centre obscuration or spiders in combination with an accessible intermediate field plane and exit pupil allow for efficient stray light mitigation. Design drivers for the telescope are the required point spread function (PSF) values, an extremely efficient stray light suppression (due to the magnitude requirement mentioned above), the detector performance, and the overall optical and mechanical stability for all orientations of the satellite. To accommodate the passive thermal stabilization scheme and the necessary structural stability, the materials selection for the telescope main structure and the mirrors are of vital importance. A focal plane with four EMCCD detectors is envisaged. The EMCCD technology features shorter integration times, which is in favor regarding the pointing performance of the satellite. The launch of the mission is foreseen for the year 2013 with a subsequent mission lifetime of at least 1 year.
When we talk about planetary exploration missions most people think spontaneously about fascinating images from other planets or close-up pictures of small planetary bodies such as asteroids and comets. Such images come in most cases from VIS/NIR- imaging- systems, simply called ‘cameras’, which were typically built by institutes in collaboration with industry. Until now, they have nearly all been based on silicon CCD sensors, they have filter wheels and have often high power-consuming electronics.
The question is, what are the challenges for future missions and what can be done to improve performance and scientific output. The exploration of Mars is ongoing. NASA and ESA are planning future missions to the outer planets like to the icy Jovian moons. Exploration of asteroids and comets are in focus of several recent and future missions. Furthermore, the detection and characterization of exo-planets will keep us busy for next generations.
The paper is discussing the challenges and visions of imaging sensors for future planetary exploration missions. The focus of the talk is monolithic VIS/NIR- detectors.
JANUS (Jovis Amorum Ac Natorum Undique Scrutator) is a high-resolution visible camera designed for the ESA space
mission JUICE (Jupiter Icy moons Explorer). The main scientific goal of JANUS is to observe the surface of the Jupiter
satellites Ganymede and Europa in order to characterize their physical and geological properties. During the design phases,
we have proposed two possible optical configurations: a Three Mirror Anastigmat (TMA) and a Ritchey-Chrétien (RC)
both matching the performance requirements. Here we describe the two optical solutions and compare their performance
both in terms of achieved optical quality, sensitivity to misalignment and stray light performances.
The JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) is dedicated to the detailed study of Jupiter and its moons. Among the whole instrument suite, JANUS (Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator) is the camera system of JUICE designed for imaging at visible wavelengths. It will conduct an in-depth study of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, and explore most of the Jovian system and Jupiter itself, performing, in the case of Ganymede, a global mapping of the satellite with a resolution of 400 m/px. The optical design chosen to meet the scientific goals of JANUS is a three mirror anastigmatic system in an off-axis configuration. To ensure that the achieved contrast is high enough to observe the features on the surface of the satellites, we also performed a preliminary stray light analysis of the telescope. We provide here a short description of the optical design and we present the procedure adopted to evaluate the stray-light expected during the mapping phase of the surface of Ganymede. We also use the results obtained from the first run of simulations to optimize the baffle design.
The JANUS (Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator) will be the on board camera of the ESA JUICE satellite dedicated to the study of Jupiter and its moons, in particular Ganymede and Europa. This optical channel will provide surface maps with plate scale of 15 microrad/pixel with both narrow and broad band filters in the spectral range between 0.35 and 1.05 micrometers over a Field of View 1.72 × 1.29 degrees2. The current optical design is based on TMA design, with on-axis pupil and off-axis field of view. The optical stop is located at the secondary mirror providing an effective collecting area of 7854 mm2 (100 mm entrance pupil diameter) and allowing a simple internal baffling for first order straylight rejection. The nominal optical performances are almost limited by the diffraction and assure a nominal MTF better than 63% all over the whole Field of View. We describe here the optical design of the camera adopted as baseline together with the trade-off that has led us to this solution.
JANUS (Jovis, Amorum ac Natorum Undique Scrutator) is the visible camera selected for the ESA JUICE mission to the Jupiter system. Resources constraints, S/C characteristics, mission design, environment and the great variability of observing conditions for several targets put stringent constraints on instrument architecture. In addition to the usual requirements for a planetary mission, the problem of mass and power consumption is particularly stringent due to the long-lasting cruising and operations at large distance from the Sun. JANUS design shall cope with a wide range of targets, from Jupiter atmosphere, to solid satellite surfaces, exosphere, rings, and lightning, all to be observed in several color and narrow-band filters. All targets shall be tracked during the mission and in some specific cases the DTM will be derived from stereo imaging. Mission design allows a quite long time range for observations in Jupiter system, with orbits around Jupiter and multiple fly-bys of satellites for 2.5 years, followed by about 6 months in orbit around Ganymede, at surface distances variable from 104 to few hundreds km. Our concept was based on a single optical channel, which was fine-tuned to cover all scientific objectives based on low to high-resolution imaging. A catoptric telescope with excellent optical quality is coupled with a rectangular detector, avoiding any scanning mechanism. In this paper the present JANUS design and its foreseen scientific capabilities are discussed.
KEYWORDS: Charge-coupled devices, Electron multiplying charge coupled devices, Sensors, Signal detection, Signal attenuation, CCD image sensors, Space operations, Point spread functions, Silicon, Satellites
The DLR Institute of Planetary Exploration has proposed a novel design of a space instrument accommodated on a
small satellite bus (SSB) that is dedicated to the detection of inner earth objects (IEOs) from a low earth orbit (LEO).
The instrument design is based on a focal plane consisting of electron multiplied CCDs (EMCCD) operating at high
frame rates for compensation of the spacecraft’s pointing jitter at very low effective readout noise. The CCD
detectors operate at a nominal operating temperature of -80°C and at a frame rate of 5fps.
It is well known, that CCD detectors are prone to space radiation. However, EMCCD, designed to detect very low
light levels of a few electrons, have not yet been used in space. Therefore, investigations have been initiated and
performed by DLR for evaluation of the performance of EMCCDs before and after radiation. The main scope of the
investigations was the characterization of the charge transfer efficiency (CTE) at low light levels because of its key
impact on the detection performance. The non-ionizing dose effects of space high energy particle radiation on the
detector were simulated by 60MeV protons at two different fluence levels. The low light-CTE was measured with
point light sources without and with background-light.
KEYWORDS: Satellites, Charge-coupled devices, Electronics, Telescopes, Space telescopes, Sensors, Asteroids, Stray light, Electron multiplying charge coupled devices, Signal to noise ratio
The DLR Institute of Planetary Exploration has proposed a novel design for a space instrument accommodated on a
small satellite bus (SSB) that is dedicated to the detection of inner earth objects (IEOs) from a low earth orbit (LEO).
The low pointing stability of the satellite bus, the stray light and thermal environment in LEO represent the major design
drivers for achieving the required limiting magnitude of 18.5 (V-band).
In order to cope with the design drivers, DLR has proposed a novel focal plane consisting of four Electron Multiplying
CCDs (EMCCD) and their associated electronics.
The GAIA mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) comprises two Astro telescopes with a very large common focal plane. The focal plane assembly consist of about 180 CCDs and accompanying video chains. The CCDs are operating in a TDI mode with complex windowing- and binning modes. Low noise, large dynamic range, linearity are mandatory for success of the Mission. Therefore, ESA has initiated a technology demonstrator, which should demonstrate the technical feasibility. Astrium-SAS in Toulouse and DLR-IPF in Berlin have successfully performed the study, in which DLR has developed the CCD- video electronics and the Interconnection Modules for the Focal Plane Demonstrator. The requirements, the conceptional design and the results are presented in this paper.
The European Space Agency has nominated the laser altimeter as one of the principal devices for planetary research for the next decade. The first mission in view is Mercury with scheduled launch in 2010. The device should be capable to range over the distances 400 to 1000 km and to acquire the information about the probe altitude above the planet surface and about the surface terrain profile with the precision of the order of one meter. The requirements on the device are rather strict: total mass below 5 kilograms, power consumption below 10 Watts. Recently, the Technology Demonstrator of the altimeter is under development at German Air and Space Agency, Institute of Planetary Research, Germany. The altimeter Technology Demonstrator is based on the diode pumped frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser delivering 50 mJ at 532 nm in 3 nanosecond long pulses with the repetition rate of 20 kHz. The solid state echo signal detector in photon counting mode will be used. The optical part of the altimeter is scaled down to simulate the real background count rate scenario and to reduce the energy budget link by a factor of 104 at the same time. The demonstrator should be capable to range objects at distances 0 - 5 kilometers in both night and day time. We are presenting the concept, design and construction of the timing system part of the laser altimeter technology demonstrator, which has been developed at the Czech Technical University in Prague optimized for photon counting altimeter concept. The timing system has interval resolution 0.25 ns, stability and linearity ~0.1 ns, epoch resolution 100 ns and accuracy 1 μs, and programmable range gate.
The camera group of the DLR--Institute of Space Sensor Technology and Planetary Exploration is developing imaging instruments for scientific and space applications. One example is the ROLIS imaging system of the ESA scientific space mission `Rosetta', which consists of a descent/downlooking and a close-up imager. Both are parts of the Rosetta-Lander payload and will operate in the extreme environment of a cometary nucleus. The Rosetta Lander Imaging System (ROLIS) will introduce a new concept for the sensor electronics, which is referred to as MOSES (Modula Sensor Electronics System). MOSES is a 3D miniaturized CCD- sensor-electronics which is based on single modules. Each of the modules has some flexibility and enables a simple adaptation to specific application requirements. MOSES is mainly designed for space applications where high performance and high reliability are required. This concept, however, can also be used in other science or commercial applications. This paper describes the concept of MOSES, its characteristics, performance and applications.
Francis Reininger, Angioletta Coradini, Fabrizio Capaccioni, M. Capria, Priscilla Cerroni, M. De Sanctis, G. Magni, Pierre Drossart, Maria Barucci, D. Bockelee-Morvan, Jean-Michel Combes, J. Crovisier, T. Encrenaz, Jean-Michel Reess, Alain Semery, Didier Tiphene, Gabriele Arnold, Uri Carsenty, Harald Michaelis, Stefano Mottola, Gerhard Neukum, G. Peters, Ulrich Schade, Fredric Taylor, Simon Calcutt, Tim Vellacott, P. Venters, R. Watkins, Giancarlo Bellucci, Vittorio Formisano, Francesco Angrilli, Gianandrea Bianchini, Bortolino Saggin, E. Bussoletti, L. Colangeli, Vito Mennella, S. Fonti, Jean-Pierre Bibring, Yves Langevin, B. Schmitt, M. Combi, U. Fink, Thomas McCord, Wing Ip, Robert Carlson, Donald Jennings
The visible infrared thermal imaging spectrometer (VIRTIS) is one of the principal payloads to be launched in 2003 on ESA's Rosetta spacecraft. Its primary scientific objective s are to map the surface of the comet Wirtanen, monitor its temperature, and identify the solids and gaseous species on the nucleus and in the coma. VIRTIS will also collet data on two asteroids, one of which has been identified as Mimistrobell. The data is collected remotely using a mapping spectrometer co-boresighted with a high spectral resolution spectrometer. The mapper consists of a Shafer telescope matched to an Offner grating spectrometer capable of gathering high spatial, medium spectral resolution image cubes in the 0.25 to 5 micrometers waveband. The high spectral resolution spectrometer uses an echelle grating and a cross dispersing prism to achieve resolving powers of 1200 to 300 in the 1.9 to 5 micrometers band. Both sub-systems are passively cooled to 130 K and use two Sterling cycle coolers to enable two HgCdTe detector arrays to operate at 70 K. The mapper also uses a silicon back-side illuminated detector array to cover the ultra-violet to near-infrared optical band.
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