Testbed for scientific CMOS Study and Development

Scientific complementary metal oxide semiconductor (sCMOS) technology is a strong candidate for the next sensor of choice for X-ray astrophysics. While CCDs have been the workhorse of the field for the last 30 years, and have been responsible for myriad scientific advancements, sCMOS devices promise several performance advantages over CCDs. These include higher frame rates (by about a factor of 100) and lower mass. sCMOS devices also promise lower demands on the payload in which they are integrated, in terms of power, volume, and cooling, which in turn lower total mission cost and complexity. Current commercially available sCMOS devices offer good performance in the near IR and visible range. Thus far, high quality, flight-ready options have not been developed in the UV or soft X-ray. Several companies (among them Sydor, Raptor, Andor, and Teledyne Princeton Instruments) have been working to overcome some of the technical challenges of sCMOS in these energy regimes like insufficient depletion depth, inappropriate pixel size, and excessive noise. sCMOS devices promise many favorable characteristics to aid in the design and execution of the small and medium scale missions called for by the Astro2020 decadal survey. I propose to construct and utilize a new testbed at MIT to gain experience with and characterize a commercial sCMOS camera in the soft X-ray band, and to understand what will be required to integrate this technology into a soft X-ray mission. This facility, along with the support promised by the MIT Kavli Institute to carry out the work and support my career, will help to position me for a long term career as a leader of soft X-ray instrumentation development at MIT.

The goals of the Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship (RTF) program in astrophysics are to provide early-career researchers the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to lead astrophysics flight instrument development projects, including suborbital investigations, in preparation to become Principal Investigators (PIs) of future NASA astrophysics missions; to develop innovative technologies for space astrophysics that have the potential to enable major scientific breakthroughs; and to foster new talents by putting early career instrument builders on a trajectory towards long-term positions.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.