Innovative SiC ultraviolet instrumentation development with potential applications for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
We detail recent and current work that is being carried out to fabricate and advance novel SiC UV instrumentation that is aimed at enabling more sensitive measurements across numerous disciplines, with a short discussion of the promise such detectors may hold for the Habitable Worlds Observatory. We discuss SiC instrument development progress that is being carried out under multiple NASA grants, including several PICASSO and SBIR grants, as well as an ECI grant. Testing of pixel design, properties, and layout as well as maturation of the integration scheme developed through these efforts provides key technology and engineering advancement for potential HWO detectors. Achieving desired noise characteristics, responsivity, and validating the operation of SiC detectors using standard readout techniques offers a compelling platform for the operation of denser and higher dimensionality SiC photodiode arrays of interest for use in potential HWO coronagraph, spectrograph, and high-resolution imaging instruments. We incorporate these SiC detector properties into a simulation of potential NUV exoplanet observations by HWO and also discuss potential applications to HWO.
Authors
- Narasimha S. Prasad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6477-2403)
- T. A. Livengood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9947-4075)
- Joseph L. Wilkins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1888-787X)
- D. P. Moriarty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6320-2337)
- Peter Snapp
- Ryan H. Purcell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6652-2747)
- Chullhee Cho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9624-8072)
- Shahid Aslam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9581-647X)
- Robert E. Washington (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5455-4453)
- Y. Kamali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1390-6288)
- Roser Juanola-Parramon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3988-6190)
- D. M. Bower (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4275-1318)
- Nader Abuhassan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3865-657X)
- Bryan K. Place (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9224-2837)
- Carl A. Kotecki
- Augustyn Waczynski
- Prabal Saxena (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3387-9495)
- Zeynep Dilli
- Bryce Galey
- Akin Akturk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6409-3221)
- Neil Goldsman
- Usama Khalid
- Ryan M. Stauffer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8583-7795)
- T. Hewagama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9663-3878)
- Thomas Frost Hanisco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9434-8507)
- Allison Youngblood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1176-3391)
- Chris Darmody
- Anh T. La
- Ethan Mountfort
Institutions
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Langley Research Center (US)
- Howard University (US)
- SciGlob (United States) (US)
- Global Science & Technology (United States) (US)
- CoolCad Electronics (United States) (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and Systems
- Published
- 2025-09-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jatis.11.4.042225
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00