Asteroid and ALFA programs: to equip Europe with high performance IR detectors for space applications

The program Astronomy European Infrared Detector (ASTEROID), funded by the European Union through H2020 (under Grant Agreement no730161), aims at enabling Europe to acquire the technology and knowledge necessary to manufacture 2k(2) high performance IR detectors. To reach these goals 9 detectors have been manufactured at Lynred and characterized at the Astrophysics Department of CEA. ASTEROID detectors are 640x512 pixels arrays with a pixel pitch of 15 mu m. The detectors are p-on-n technology, with 15 mu m pixel pitch, with a cut-off wavelength of 2.1 mu m. In the detector architecture, the MCT light-sensitive layer is hybridized on a Source Follower Detector (SFD) Read Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC) via indium bumps. In this paper, the characterization results of ASTEROID detectors will be presented. The best detectors show extremely low dark current around 0.001 e-/s/pix, which is equivalent to standard H2RG IR detector (widely used in the IR domain for astrophysics applications). The quantum efficiency (QE) of these detectors has also been measured on a dedicated test bench and will be presented. ASTEROID detectors demonstrated a QE of 70 %.