The French Space Agency (CNES) has reported the first images obtained on Mars using the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) of the SuperCam instrument (the French contribution to NASA JPL PERSEVERANCE Rover) during the CNES Press Conference. The instrument provides high resolution (<70 µrad per pixel) color images for planetologists.
The image sensor used is a CMV4000 (4MP, with RGB color filters and microlenses) from AMS CMOSIS qualified by CNES. The French Space Agency started to work on the CMV image sensor family in 2011. Since then, CNES has demonstrated through radiation effect studies and intensive qualification work that using COTS sensors for space scientific missions can be reliable and cost-effective. Especially, the radiation hardness of pinned photodiode, Bayer color filter arrays, and per-pixel microlenses has been found to be compatible with Mars exploration mission requirements.
Cédric Virmontois is in charge of the RMI at CNES. For more than a decade, ISAE-SUPAERO / CNES PhD students have been participating in the fundamental study of radiation effects on CMOS image sensors.
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