PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is an M-class mission of the European Space Agency’s Science Programme Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 planned to be launched in 2026. PLATO aims to characterize exoplanetary systems by detecting planetary transits and conducting asterosismology of their parent stars. The Payload is composed of 26 camera, each PLATO Camera consists of a Telescope (TOU), a Focal Plane Assembly (FPA), which is comprised of four CCDs (Charge-Coupled Device). Each FPA is associated to a Front-End Electronics (FEE) that drives the readout. The FEE transmits the data to the Data Processing Unit (DPU). Then the data is downloaded to the central Instrument Control Unit (ICU). CCDs performances are very sensitive to any kind of contamination. The presence of particles and molecular contamination on CCD sensitive surface can have an impact on pixels thus potentially degrading the optical performance. The total sensitive area is wide and open, completely exposed to the environment. For that reason, a very exhaustive contamination control during the serial production of the FPA has been followed to achieve the specified cleanliness (molecular and particulate) level focusing in avoiding loss in CCDs performances. This paper describes the control, issues and improvements implemented during the FPA flight models activities related to contamination.
Particulate and molecular cleanliness control of the FPA for PLATO mission
Optical Sensors 2025 ; 2025 ; Prague, Czech Republic
Proc. SPIE ; 13527
23.05.2025
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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