We, at SCD.USA, have developed and are manufacturing state-of-the-art CMOS Time Delay Integration (TDI) sensors for satellite-mounted space telescopes in the VIS/NIR range. This is a multi-spectral, backside illuminated, radiation hardened sensor incorporating a single silicon die having four independent arrays corresponding to different spectral bands. Each array includes 2,600 columns and up to 64 TDI levels.
As compared to competing satellite sensors, SCD’s CMOS-TDI sensor has extremely low power consumption of up to 1.5 Watts for the entire detector, a significant advantage in satellite applications. The sensor also incorporates pixels with extremely large full well capacity of over 300,000 electrons. This results in negligible noise levels. The detector is also characterized by high MTF at Nyquist frequency throughout the 400nm-1000nm region. The detector has also been proven to recover quickly from intense lighting, and withstand various stresses associated with launching and orbiting in space.
