EMCCD Technology Advancements for the WFIRST Coronagraph
Abstract
A photon counting camera based on the Teledyne-e2v CCD201-20 electron multiplying CCD (EMCCD) is being developed for the NASA WFIRST coronagraph, an exoplanet imaging technology development of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA). The coronagraph is designed to demonstrate technologies necessary to directly image planets around nearby stars, and to characterize their spectra. The planets are exceedingly faint, providing signals similar to the detector dark current, and require the use of photon counting detectors. Red sensitivity (600-980nm) is preferred to capture spectral features of interest. EMCCDs are baselined both as science and wavefront sensors in the coronagraph. In the last year we have evaluated the capability of several flight prototypes provided to us by Teledyne-e2v (UK) as part of a project-funded technology development contract. We summarize our measurements and plans for flight development.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #235
- Pub Date:
- January 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AAS...23513006M