Teledyne e2v, a part of the Teledyne Imaging Group, will supply image sensors and detectors to the recently announced grouped proposal of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) industrial policy committee to place six Copernicus Sentinel satellite missions in space. As the sensor partner for Thales Alenia Space, the UK team will develop, manufacture and supply variants of their Capella CMOS visible image sensor from Chelmsford.
These new Teledyne e2v CMOS image sensors, designed for space applications, feature a large area resolution of 2048 x 2048, 10µm pixels, are radiation tolerant, operating in the UV-NIR wavelengths.
The CO2I and NO2 sensors are part of a four sensor CO2M instrument. The Copernicus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring (CO2M) mission will carry a near infrared (NIR) and shortwave-infrared (SWIR) spectrometer to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by human activity.
Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67 %) and Leonardo (33 %), and long-term customer and partner of Teledyne e2v, has signed a €72 million first tranche contract with OHB System, prime contractor, to develop the payload for the two C02M satellites.
The CO2M mission is part of the expansion of the Copernicus Space Component programme of the European Space Agency, ESA, in partnership with the European Commission. The European Copernicus flagship programme provides Earth observation and in situ data and a broad range of services for environmental monitoring and protection, climate monitoring, natural disaster assessment to improve the quality of life of European citizens. These measurements will reduce uncertainties in estimates of carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel at national and regional levels, providing the EU with a unique and independent source to assess the effectiveness of policy measures, and to track their impact toward decarbonising Europe and meeting national emission reduction targets.
Miles Adcock, President Space & Quantum at Teledyne e2v commented, “The award of this new contract is a proud moment for our team. Our investment in our UK-based fab and the continued development of visible and infrared detector capabilities are testament to the critical support we provide in support of important missions emanating from the UK and the European market.”
Teledyne e2v has been designing the world’s most advanced sensor and imaging technology from the UK, France and Spain since 1947. The Copernicus missions will benefit from the recently commissioned 8” CMOS sensor back-thinning process that enables higher performance sensing within the detector and from the latest developments of CMOS technologies including Time Delay Integration (TDI) devices for Earth Observation, a UK development programme that is co-funded by the UK Space Agency.