Thursday, October 21, 2010

e2v Contracted to Fill 0.9 sq.m Area with CCDs

e2v has been awarded a contract to develop a CCD for the European Space Agency (ESA) PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) space science mission. The aim of PLATO is to search for transiting planets within our galaxy to understand the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life.

In order to achieve this aim the mission proposes to fly a satellite with a focal plane of up to 34 mini-telescopes, each containing 4 large area back illuminated CCDs to provide ultra high precision photometry. If successful, the satellite will have nearly 0.9 m2 of image sensors and will be by far the largest image sensor focal plane ever flown.

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