Duration: 36 months
RNDR-DEPFETs have recently been studied for direct dark matter experiments. As active pixel sensors with a repetitive non-destructive readout (RNDR), they achieve deep sub-electron noise (below 0.2 e-ENC) within a frame rate in the order of 100 ms. In combination with a thick-fully depleted science grade silicon bulk and a low thermal generation rate, this technology provides the possibility to perform photon number resolved measurements in space in the NIR regime with a high time resolution. In contrast to alternative technologies (Skipper-CCDs or EMCCDs) no extensive lateral charge transfer is needed and a full-parallel readout is achievable. Both is expected to result in improved radiation tolerance. Recent publication further demonstrated the capability to adapt the operation to achieve an electron number resolved detection with a time resolution below 1 ms. Despite this promising performance, an evaluation and prototyping of this technology for a space instrument is still missing. This includes the development and operation of a prototype module with a specific test setup and the subsequent irradiation and data analysis. This test campaign will demonstrate and quantify the capability of RNDR-DEPFET sensors for direct Exoplanet detection. The establishment of an additional technology with the potential to be further optimized on the specific application of Exoplanet detection is of vast importance as the requirements of far-future missions can hardly be fulfilled by well-established technologies.
