Teledyne Imaging Sensors: silicon CMOS imaging technologies for x-ray, UV, visible, and near infrared

Abstract

Teledyne Imaging Sensors develops and produces high performance silicon-based CMOS image sensors, with associated electronics and packaging for astronomy and civil space. Teledyne's silicon detector sensors use two technologies: monolithic CMOS, and silicon PIN hybrid CMOS. Teledyne's monolithic CMOS sensors are large (up to 59 million pixels), low noise (2.8 e- readout noise demonstrated, 1-2 e- noise in development), low dark current (<10 pA/cm² at 295K) and can provide in-pixel snapshot shuttering with >10³ extinction and microsecond time resolution. The QE limitation of frontside-illuminated CMOS is being addressed with specialized microlenses and backside illumination. A monolithic CMOS imager is under development for laser guide star wavefront sensing. Teledyne's hybrid silicon PIN CMOS sensors, called HyViSI^TM, provide high QE for the x-ray through near IR spectral range and large arrays (2K&times;2K, 4K&times;4K) are being produced with >99.9% operability. HyViSI dark current is 5-10 nA/cm² (298K), and further reduction is expected from ongoing development. HyViSI presently achieves <10 e- readout noise, and new high speed HyViSI arrays being produced in 2008 should achieve <4 e- readout noise at 900 Hz frame rate. A Teledyne 640&times;480 pixel HyViSI array is operating in the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a 1K&times;1K HyViSI array will be launched in 2008 in the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, and HyViSI arrays are under test at several astronomical observatories. The advantages of CMOS in comparison to CCD include programmable readout modes, faster readout, lower power, radiation hardness, and the ability to put specialized processing within each pixel. We present one example of in-pixel processing: event driven readout that is optimal for lightning detection and x-ray imaging.