Evaluation of Microlenses, Color Filters, and Polarizing Filters in CIS for Space Applications
Clémentine Durnez,
Cédric Virmontois,
Pierre Panuel,
Aubin Antonsanti,
Vincent Goiffon,
Magali Estribeau,
Olivier Saint-Pé,
Valérian Lalucaa,
Erick Berdin,
Franck Larnaudie,
Jean-Marc Belloir,
Catalin Codreanu,
Ludovic Chavanne
Affiliations
Clémentine Durnez
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Cédric Virmontois
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Pierre Panuel
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Aubin Antonsanti
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Vincent Goiffon
Department of Electronics, Optronics and Signal Processing (DEOS), Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), 10 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Magali Estribeau
Department of Electronics, Optronics and Signal Processing (DEOS), Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), 10 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Olivier Saint-Pé
Airbus Defence and Space, 31 Rue des Cosmonautes, 31400 Toulouse, France
Valérian Lalucaa
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Erick Berdin
Airbus Defence and Space, 31 Rue des Cosmonautes, 31400 Toulouse, France
Franck Larnaudie
Airbus Defence and Space, 31 Rue des Cosmonautes, 31400 Toulouse, France
Jean-Marc Belloir
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Catalin Codreanu
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Ludovic Chavanne
Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
For the last two decades, the CNES optoelectronics detection department and partners have evaluated space environment effects on a large panel of CMOS image sensors (CIS) from a wide range of commercial foundries and device providers. Many environmental tests have been realized in order to provide insights into detection chain degradation in modern CIS for space applications. CIS technology has drastically improved in the last decade, reaching very high performances in terms of quantum efficiency (QE) and spectral selectivity. These improvements are obtained thanks to the introduction of various components in the pixel optical stack, such as microlenses, color filters, and polarizing filters. However, since these parts have been developed only for commercial applications suitable for on-ground environment, it is crucial to evaluate if these technologies can handle space environments for future space imaging missions. There are few results on that robustness in the literature. The objective of this article is to give an overview of CNES and partner experiments from numerous works, showing that the performance gain from the optical stack is greater than the degradation induced by the space environment. Consequently, optical stacks can be used for space missions because they are not the main contributor to the degradation in the detection chain.