WISE-Heritage Megapixel BIB Focal Plane Arrays for Astronomy
Abstract
The most significant design features of the low-noise 1024x1024 cryogenic FPA readout developed by DRS for the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have been transferred to a new high-flux FPA readout design for terrestrial and airborne astronomy with warm telescopes. The development of the new readout and the first 1024x1024 arsenic-doped silicon (Si:As) BIB FPA based on it was a joint effort between DRS and NASA JPL. This FPA is called the MegaMIR FPA, since it will be initially utilized in the MegaMIR camera being developed by JPL. New high-flux Si:As detector arrays were fabricated by DRS for use in the MegaMIR FPA, and the first two engineering FPAs have been prepared and delivered to JPL for evaluation. . In parallel DRS is applying the same high-flux readout for development of a 512x512 antimony-doped silicon (Si:Sb) having twice the pixel size and pitch as the MegaMIR FPA. The 4 times larger pixel size is better matched to the diffraction-limited resolution of the longer-wavelength Si:Sb detectors ( 40 µm cut-off vs 28 µm of Si:As).
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #213
- Pub Date:
- January 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AAS...21345903H