Rockwell Science Center is developing low-noise visible and infrared imaging sensors and systems for astronomy, high-end commercial. NASA, and advanced military applications. The first science grade 2048x2048 HAWAII-2 focal plane array (FPA) for astronomy was recently demonstrated for the SWIR (0.9-2.5 pm) waveband. Science-grade deliveries to the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, the European Southern Observatory and the Subaru Telescope, among others, will soon start. MWIR/visible (0.3-5.5 mu m) 2048x2048 HAWAII-2 arrays are also being developed for the NGST program using our process for removing the CdZnTe substrate from the back-side illuminated HgCdTe FPAs to detect visible radiation in addition to infrared. Previously, more than 25 science grade 2.5 mu m 1024x1024 HAWAII FPAs were delivered for use in many observatories; these typically exhibit <0.1 e-/s dark current and <10 e- read noise after correlated double sampling at temperatures above 60K. 1024x1024 FPAs with 0.9-5.5 mu m response were also demonstrated and delivered. Similarly, NIR (0.9-1.7 mu m) 1024x1024 and 2048x2048 FPA development is also continuing; dark current <1 e-/s has been measured at 140K for a NIR 1024x1024 HAWAII array. In a related effort, development of high frame rate (3-15 kHz), low noise (<10 electrons) FPAs has begun for wavefront sensing including adaptive optical systems for both visible and NIR/SWIR bands. Hybrid Visible Silicon Imager (HyViSI) development is also continuing, expanding the success achieved with prior 640x480 FPAs. We are now demonstrating 1024x1024 arrays with 0.3-1.05 mu m response. The silicon detectors in HyViSI FPAs are independently processed on silicon wafers and mated to the same multiplexers Fabricated originally for interface to HgCdTe detectors. HyViSI FPA quantum efficiency is >90% with near-100% fill factor, and the dark current is negligible with minimum cooling. Our near-term plan to develop 4096x4096 visible and IR FPAs will also be discussed.
