Modeling and simulation of TDI CCD detector to study the in-fluence of different artifacts from dynamical behavior of small satellites for LEO

Abstract

This work is part of AQUALIS (Affordable QUALity Images from Space), a strategic basic research (SBO) project. The goal is to develop and demonstrate innovative technologies which enable the acquisition of very high-resolution Earth Observation images from small satellites at reduced cost while maintaining high image quality. Imec first introduced its monolithic CCD-in-CMOS technology at IEDM 2014. It combines the benefits of a classical CCD TDI with the advantages of CMOS System-On-a-Chip (SoC) design. Imec’s CCD-in-CMOS technology is continuously being tuned to reach high pixel performance. In the course of a high precision pointing platform (HPPP) development, a simulation model of the TDI CCD-in-CMOS image sensor was established in Python to mimic the real TDI operation and to do the detector analysis. By analyzing the process of time delay integration dynamic imaging, we establish simulation models for velocity mismatch, angular drift, and charge transfer inefficiency (CTI). Based on these models, we analyzed the influence of mentioned factors on the dynamic imaging process, and modulation transfer function (MTF) to evaluate imaging quality.