Micro Sun sensor

Author

Liebe, Carl Christian ; Mobasser, Sohrab ; Bae, Youngsam ; Wrigley, Chris J. ; Schroeder, Jeffrey R. ; Howard, Ayanna M.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

5

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

132705

Abstract

A prototype micro Sun sensor has been developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. It consists of a thin piece of silicon coated with a layer of chrome and a layer of gold with hundreds of small pinholes, placed on top of an Active Pixel Sensor (APS) image detector at a distance of 900 microns. Images of the Sun are formed on the APS image detector when the Sun illuminates the mask. Sun angles are derived by determining the precise location of the Sun images on the detector-just like a sundial. The packaged micro sun sensor has a mass of 11 grams, a volume of 4.2 cm³ and a power consumption of 30 mW. The accuracy of the micro sun sensor is better than 1 arcminute and the maximum field of view is 160°.

Keywords

Sun; attitude measurement; image sensors; masks; micromechanical devices; space vehicle electronics; ultraviolet lithography; 30 mW; 900 micron; APS image detector; Au-Cr-Si; MEMS fabrication techniques; MEMS lithography-technique; MEMS mask; Sun angles; active pixel sensor; micro Sun sensor prototype; spacecraft attitude determination subsystems; Detectors; Gold; Image sensors; Laboratories; Packaging; Pixel; Propulsion; Prototypes; Silicon; Sun;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference Proceedings, 2002. IEEE

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7231-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2002.1035393

Filename

1035393