Manufacturability and performance of 2.3-µm HgCdTe H2RG sensor chip assemblies for Euclid

The detector system for the Euclid Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument is a 4×4 mosaic focal plane of 16 H2RG (2K×2K pixels) infrared Sensor Chip Assemblies (SCAs) and 16 SIDECAR ASIC Sensor Chip Electronics (SCE) modules. Teledyne has successfully completed the fabrication, testing, and delivery of 24 sciencegrade flight candidate SCAs to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). These SCAs were made with Teledyne’s TRL-9 substrate-removed MBE mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) 2.3 μm cutoff detector material and low-noise H2RG CMOS readout chip. The SCAs are mounted on a buttable molybdenum package that enables close packing of the 16 flight SCAs in the NISP focal plane. In this paper, we present the test results of the 24 Euclid flight candidate SCAs. The key detector performance parameters that are critical to the NISP instrument are: high in-band quantum efficiency with good spatial uniformity, low readout noise, low dark current with tight distribution, low pixel crosstalk, low persistence, and good detector surface metrology profile. All 24 SCAs exceed the Euclid NISP performance and interface requirements. The additional acceptance testing at JPL and NASA Goddard’s Detector Characterization Lab has also been completed. 20 flight SCAs have been delivered to European Space Agency (ESA).