AIP Advances (Jun 2012)
Commentary: JWST near-infrared detector degradation— finding the problem, fixing the problem, and moving forward
- Bernard J. Rauscher,
- Carl Stahle,
- Robert J. Hill,
- Matthew Greenhouse,
- James Beletic,
- Sachidananda Babu,
- Peter Blake,
- Keith Cleveland,
- Emmanuel Cofie,
- Bente Eegholm,
- C. W. Engelbracht,
- Donald N. B. Hall,
- Alan Hoffman,
- Basil Jeffers,
- Christine Jhabvala,
- Randy A. Kimble,
- Stanley Kohn,
- Robert Kopp,
- Don Lee,
- Henning Leidecker,
- Don Lindler,
- Robert E. McMurray Jr.,
- Karl Misselt,
- D. Brent Mott,
- Raymond Ohl,
- Judith L. Pipher,
- Eric Piquette,
- Dan Polis,
- Jim Pontius,
- Marcia Rieke,
- Roger Smith,
- W. E. Tennant,
- Liqin Wang,
- Yiting Wen,
- Christopher N. A. Willmer,
- Majid Zandian
Affiliations
- Bernard J. Rauscher
- NIRSpec Detector Scientist, Observational Cosmology Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Carl Stahle
- NASA Detector Degradation Failure Review Board Chair, Instrument Systems and Technology Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Robert J. Hill
- NASA Detector Degradation Failure Review Board Assistant Chair, Observational Cosmology Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Matthew Greenhouse
- Integrated Science Instruments Module Project Scientist, Observational Cosmology Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- James Beletic
- Teledyne Imaging Sensors, 5212 Verdugo Way, Camarillo, CA, 93012, USA
- Sachidananda Babu
- Detector Systems Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Peter Blake
- Optics Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Keith Cleveland
- Mission Assurance Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Emmanuel Cofie
- Mechanical Systems Analysis & Simulations Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Bente Eegholm
- Optics Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- C. W. Engelbracht
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
- Donald N. B. Hall
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hilo, HI, 96720, USA
- Alan Hoffman
- Acumen Scientific, Goleta, CA, 93117, USA
- Basil Jeffers
- Parts Engineering Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Christine Jhabvala
- Detector Systems Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Randy A. Kimble
- Integration & Test Project Scientist, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Stanley Kohn
- Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA, 90245, USA
- Robert Kopp
- Teledyne Imaging Sensors, 5212 Verdugo Way, Camarillo, CA, 93012, USA
- Don Lee
- Teledyne Imaging Sensors, 5212 Verdugo Way, Camarillo, CA, 93012, USA
- Henning Leidecker
- Electrical Engineering Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Don Lindler
- Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Robert E. McMurray Jr.
- Instrument Technology Branch, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 94035, USA
- Karl Misselt
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
- D. Brent Mott
- Detector Systems Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Raymond Ohl
- Optics Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Judith L. Pipher
- FGS Detector Scientist, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA
- Eric Piquette
- Teledyne Imaging Sensors, 5212 Verdugo Way, Camarillo, CA, 93012, USA
- Dan Polis
- Materials Engineering Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Jim Pontius
- Mechanical Systems Analysis & Simulations Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Marcia Rieke
- NIRCam Principal Investigator, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
- Roger Smith
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
- W. E. Tennant
- Teledyne Imaging Sensors, 5212 Verdugo Way, Camarillo, CA, 93012, USA
- Liqin Wang
- Materials Engineering Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Yiting Wen
- Detector Systems Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
- Christopher N. A. Willmer
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
- Majid Zandian
- Teledyne Imaging Sensors, 5212 Verdugo Way, Camarillo, CA, 93012, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4733534
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 2,
no. 2
pp. 021901 – 021901-18
Abstract
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. JWST will be an infrared-optimized telescope, with an approximately 6.5 m diameter primary mirror, that is located at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point. Three of JWST’s four science instruments use Teledyne HgCdTe HAWAII-2RG (H2RG) near infrared detector arrays. During 2010, the JWST Project noticed that a few of its 5 μm cutoff H2RG detectors were degrading during room temperature storage, and NASA chartered a “Detector Degradation Failure Review Board” (DD-FRB) to investigate. The DD-FRB determined that the root cause was a design flaw that allowed indium to interdiffuse with the gold contacts and migrate into the HgCdTe detector layer. Fortunately, Teledyne already had an improved design that eliminated this degradation mechanism. During early 2012, the improved H2RG design was qualified for flight and JWST began making additional H2RGs. In this article, we present the two public DD-FRB “Executive Summaries” that: (1) determined the root cause of the detector degradation and (2) defined tests to determine whether the existing detectors are qualified for flight. We supplement these with a brief introduction to H2RG detector arrays, some recent measurements showing that the performance of the improved design meets JWST requirements, and a discussion of how the JWST Project is using cryogenic storage to retard the degradation rate of the existing flight spare H2RGs.
