Design and Fabrication of an Albedo Insensitive Analog Sun Sensor

A sun sensor is usually included in a satellite for optically measuring the position relative to the sun. The accuracy of a conventional sun sensor is affected by reflected sunlight at the nearby earth atmosphere: the albedo radiation. The part of the spectrum at near IR (1.5 ?m) is not included in the albedo radiation, due to the high water...

Active pixel sensors: The sensor of choice for future space applications

It is generally known that active pixel sensors (APS) have a number of advantages over CCD detectors if it comes to cost for mass production, power consumption and ease of integration. Nevertheless, most space applications still use CCD detectors because they tend to give better performance and have a successful heritage. To this respect a...

Smart FPA’s: Are they worth the effort?

CMOS APS technology allows including signal processing in the sensor array. Inclusion of functionality however will come at a cost both financially and in the field of limited applicability. Based on two real world examples (micro digital sunsensor core and lightning flash detector for Meteosat Third Generation (MTG)) it will be demonstrated...