Radiation Effects in Thermal Image Sensors for Earth Observation Missions

Cobalt60 and heavy ion irradiations of the ULIS UL03041 thermal infrared image sensor were performed to assess its reliability during ESA´s EarthCARE mission. Devices were tested up to 10 krad(Si) and 40 MeV/mg/cm² LET. The sensors have acceptable performance up to at least 10 krad(Si) and are susceptible to SEL down to a LETs of 15.9 MeV/mg/cm² with an estimated threshold at 12.1 MeV/mg/cm².