Evaluation of space radiation effects on HgCdTe avalanche photodiode arrays for Lidar applications

Abstract

We report the results from proton and gamma ray radiation testing of HgCdTe avalanche photodiode (APD) arrays developed by Leonardo DRS for space lidar detectors. We tested these devices with both ~60 MeV protons and gamma rays, with and without the read out integrated circuit (ROIC). We also measured the transient responses with the device fully powered and with the APD gain from unity to >1000. The detectors produced a large current impulse in response to each proton hit but the response completely recovered within 1 µs. The devices started to have persistent damage at a proton fluence of 7e10 protons/cm 2 , equivalent to 10 krad(Si) total ionization dose. The dark current became much higher after the device was warmed to room temperature and cooled to 80K again, but it completely annealed after baking at 85°C for several hours. These results showed the HgCdTe APD arrays are suitable for use in space lidar for typical Earth orbiting and planetary missions provided that provisions are made to heat the detector chip to 85°C for several hours after radiation damage becomes evident that system performance is impacted.

Simulated Lunar Surface Hydration Measurements Using Multispectral Lidar at 3 µm

“…From our model, we conservatively estimated an SNR of 250 for each lidar wavelength under sunlit conditions from a 50 km orbit with a 25‐cm diameter receiver telescope, 100 μJ output pulse energy per wavelength, and assuming a 1‐s integration time (Figure S11 in Supporting Information ). The laser and detector performance have been demonstrated for this wavelength regime using optical parametric oscillator‐based lasers (Cremons et al., 2020; S. X. Li et al., 2017), and a sensitive HgCdTe APD detector (Abshire et al., 2018; Hubbs et al., 2018; Sun et al., 2019). We do not intend to limit the lidar system or subsystem architecture here, but to ensure the simulations include reasonable measurement conditions for an orbital multispectral lidar.…”

Design of a direct-detection wind and aerosol lidar for mars orbit

“…The model uses the demonstrated laser pulse energy and width, optical receiver parameters, and the detector response and noise characteristics. The instrument parameters are listed in Table 1, and detector characteristics can be found in recent publications [59,65].…”

HgCdTe avalanche photodiode array detectors with single photon sensitivity and integrated detector cooler assemblies for space lidar applications

“…Radiation damage tests were also performed on the FPA's from the lot, which showed that these devices can be used in the space radiation environment of a typical Earth orbiting mission, provided that the FPAs can be annealed periodically by heating them to 85°C for a few hours. 9 The annealing can be achieved by including a small heater on the chip carrier inside the Dewar.…”