Development of high-performance monolithic CMOS detectors for space applications

TLDR: In this article, the authors describe the development of a 750x750 pixels CMOS image sensor for star tracker applications, which can be considered as a major technical breakthrough that gives a decisive advantage in terms of on satellite implementation cost and flexibility (sensor mass and power consumption minimisation, electronics and architecture flexibility).

Abstract: This paper describes the development of a 750x750 pixels CMOS image sensor for star tracker applications. A first demonstrator of such a star tracker called SSM star tracker built around a 512x512 detector has been recently developed and proves the feasibility of such instrument. In order to take fully advantage of the CMOS image sensor step, the 750x750 device called SSM CMOS detector which will take part of the final star tracker, can be considered as a major technical breakthrough that gives a decisive advantage in terms of on satellite implementation cost and flexibility (sensor mass and power consumption minimisation, electronics and architecture flexibility). Indeed, built using the 0.5μm Alcatel Microelectronics standard CMOS technolgoy, the SSM CMOS detector will feature on-chip temperature sensor and on-chip sequencer. In order to evaluate the radiation tolerance of such manufacturing technology, a radiation campaign that contains studies of total dose and latch-up effects has been led on a specific test vehicle.