LYNRED is a global leader in designing and manufacturing high quality infrared technologies for aerospace, defence and commercial markets. Its vast portfolio of infrared detectors covers the entire electromagnetic spectrum from near to very far infrared, especially thanks to well-mastered wavelength tuneable MCT technology. In addition, space radiation resilience of MCT technology enables LYNRED to be the leading European manufacturer for IR detectors deployed in space. One noticeable recent trend associated to space detectors market is the increase of requested multilinear/multispectral array format (from around 1000 up to 4000 photo-elements) combined with a high frame rate need (frame time from 100µs up to several hundred of µs). However, these characteristics are generally not compatible with the current windowed 2D-large sensors off-the-shelf offer of space market especially due to technical different operating points between 2D and linear sensors. Therefore, specific recent developments have been triggered by LYNRED in order to better suit future pushbroom (generally based on several multilinear arrays) or whiskbroom (generally based on one multilinear array) instrument concepts. One of the main challenges of this portfolio extension is to design a multilinear sensor space product line not only based on space proven building blocks heritage but also on delayed differentiation approach as much as possible. This design orientation will enable to fit optimally to the widest range of space instruments needs in a reduced time. First of all, multilinear/multispectral sensors development is based on two pillars addressing two segments of applications in terms of flux and spectral ranges. Even if the segmentation of space application for multilinear sensor is not strictly binary, the first segment concerns Low Flux applications (named LF) whereas the second one is dedicated to High Flux (named HF). LF applications being mainly dedicated to SWIR and MWIR spectral range and HF applications oriented to space applications from MWIR up to VLWIR spectral range. The first chapter will focus on the input technical requirements for both segments and on the discussion of the main associated design challenges.
For several years now, LYNRED, CEA-LETI and CEA-IRFU have been involved in the development of large area, very high performance NIR retinas for astronomy, in the context of the ALFA program (Astronomical Large Format Array). It aims at demonstrating the ability to produce in Europe low flux 2kx2k arrays exhibiting the very high performances required by science applications. In this context, high performance means very low dark current (below 0.1 e/s/px) with high QE (above 80%). LETI and LYNRED succeeded this year in the fabrication of a 2kx2k array, with very high uniformity as characterized at IRFU. One of those arrays will be used on the CAGIRE camera of the SVOM mission, aiming at observing afterglows of gamma ray bursts. Additional studies are ongoing on test arrays manufactured with the same technology to assess the behavior of this technology in terms of persistence and radiation hardness for space use.
CEA and Sofradir have been involved for 7 years in studies related to a large format detector development for science and astronomy applications. These studies are linked with ESA's Near Infrared Large Format Sensor Array roadmap which aims to develop a 2Kx2K large format low flux low noise device. The ALFA (Astronomical Large Focal plane Array) detector is currently at design, manufacturing and validation phase at CEA and Sofradir. This paper will present the very last achievements of the ALFA development with a specific focus on the readout integrated circuit design itself. Features and specification of the 2048x2048 15μm pitch with Source Follower Detector (SFD) input stage will be described. Apart from ESA development, European Commission is also contributing to the large detector development thanks to ASTEROID (AStronomical TEchnology EuROpean Infrared detector Development) program founded by REA (Research European Agency). ASTEROID main objectives are to develop very large raw materials (CdZnTe substrate, HgCdTe epilayer…) compatible with the manufacturing of very large detectors in volume keeping the same level of performance. Organization and status of this program will be presented where high synergy with 2K² ALFA detector are included.
HgCdTe avalanche photodiode focal plane arrays (FPAs) and single element detectors have been developed for a large scope of photon starved applications. The present communication present the characteristics of our most recent detector developments that opens the horizon for low infrared (IR) photon number detection with high information conservation for imaging, atmospheric lidar and free space telecommunications. In particular, we report on the performance of TEC cooled large area detectors with sensitive diameters ranging from 30- 200 μm, characterised by detector gains of 2- 20 V/μW and noise equivalent input power of 0.1-1 nW for bandwidths ranging from 20 to 400 MHz.
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