Current progress of active pixel sensor developments for future the European Space Agency planetary and sun observation missions

Active Pixel Sensors (SWIR, Optical and UV/EUV) have been identified by ESA (European Space Agency) as remote sensing payload detector technology for the next two major science missions: Bepi Colombo and Solar Orbiter. The Bepi Colombo probes will be launched in 2013 toward Mercury in cooperation with the Japanese Space Agency. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft will be launched in 2015 and will study the sun as close as 45 sun radii. Due to their improved electro-optical characteristics, reduced power consumption and more important their potential radiation hardness, Active Pixel Sensors are a priori ideal candidates for such challenging missions. To fulfill the scientific requirements while meeting the stringent mission constraints, dedicated activities have been initiated in the European industry under ESA funding: design and manufacture of a 2kx2k, 10 um pitch optical array, a 512x256 30 um Optical-SWIR array and technological developments for EUV Solar blind arrays. To support these activities, SCI-AI has developed in house expertise and testing capabilities in its labs so far focused on higher energy detectors (X, gammas). A particular effort is being brought to develop knowledge and hands-on experience on radiation testing of APS. We will report in a first section the early trade-offs of the above mentioned industrial developments. We will then present in more details preliminary radiation test results obtained on the STAR1000 Active Pixel Sensor, one of the most interesting precursor of the future generation of APS for space in Europe.