Properties and characteristics of the WFIRST H4RG-10 detectors

Understand

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will answer fundamental questions about the evolution of dark energy over time and expand the catalog of known exoplanets into new regions of parameter space.

• Using a Hubble-sized mirror and 18 newly developed HgCdTe 4K x 4K photodiode arrays (H4RG-10), WFIRST will measure the positions and shapes of hundreds of millions of galaxies, the light curves of thousands of supernovae, and the microlensing signals of over a thousand exoplanets toward the bulge of the Galaxy.
• These measurements require unprecedented sensitivity and characterization of the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), particularly its detectors.
• The WFIRST project undertook an extensive detector development program to create focal plane arrays that meet these science requirements.