It will be part of the recently announced proposal of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) industrial policy committee to place six Copernicus Sentinel satellite missions in space.
Specifically, Teledyne e2v will be supplying Leonardo with a space grade VNIR-SWIR detector unit for the CHIME (Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission) instrument.
The detector will comprise a Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) processed Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) 3k x 512-pixel detector with optimised coating exhibiting high quantum efficiency and low dark current. The MCT detector will be matched with a Read Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC).
Thales Alenia Space will serve as prime contractor and integrator for the CHIME program with OHB and Leonardo as main partners for the payload.
CHIME
For its part, CHIME will provide hyperspectral observations to support services for sustainable agricultural and biodiversity management, and soil property characterisation.
“This announcement follows as further good news, on recent infrared and visible detector contracts, building on our investment in our UK-based fab, design and manufacturing teams, which are critical to the support of important missions emanating from the European and UK market,” said Miles Adcock, President Space & Quantum at Teledyne e2v.
Teledyne e2v highlights that it will also supply variants of their Capella CMOS visible image sensor for the Copernicus Expansion CO2 Monitoring Mission.
Image: ESA – CHIME
See also: Teleydyne Imaging technology central to ESA Copernicus missions