High Performance Ultraviolet Detectors for Suborbital, CubeSat, and Flagship Missions

Nearly every planetary mission has included an ultraviolet observation capability in their suite of instruments due to the richness of the ultraviolet spectral range with diagnostic lines. To advance beyond the discoveries of previous missions such as Cassini and Hubble Space Telescope, advances in technology will be required. We will discuss the development of ultraviolet instrument technologies at JPL's Microdevices Laboratory in particular development of ultraviolet silicon detectors with tailorable response, high in band efficiency and high out of band rejection. We will describe our nano-engineering processes relevant to the ultraviolet detection and we will focus our discussion on the development of detectors for three recent and upcoming missions, namely the Faint Intergalactic-medium Redshifted Emission Balloon—FIREBall-2 (launched September 2018), Spatial Heterodyne Interferometric Emission Line Dynamics Spectrometer—SHIELDS (launch planned for 2020), and Star Planet Activity Research CubeSat—SPARCS (launch planned for 2021). In addition, we will also discuss detector as well as coatings development relevant to future missions.