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Teledyne e2v recently completed its first delivery milestone for the supply of their CCD Bruyères image sensors to be used in the European Space Agency’s PLATO Mission. Earlier this year, the acceptance event was marked with a signing by the delivery review board at Teledyne e2v in Chelmsford, UK.

The acceptance of the first flight model is significant, as with the first sensors meeting the requirements for flight, it allows Teledyne e2v to move forward with production of the devices and to complete the deliveries of a total of 112 flight grade sensors. The projected completion date for this €42 M contract for custom sensors is due through 2021.

PLATO will consist of 26 telescopes mounted on a single satellite platform. Each telescope will contain four 20 Mpixel Teledyne e2v CCDs in both full-frame and frame-transfer variants, for a full satellite total of 2.12 Gpixels. This is over twice the equivalent number for Gaia, the largest camera currently in space. As with Gaia, all of the PLATO CCD image sensors will be designed and produced in Chelmsford, UK.

The CCD Bruyères (named after Teledyne e2v’s Jean-Francois Bruyères) is a 4510 x 4510 18µm pixel custom image sensor that will be used to study a large number of extra-solar planetary systems, with an emphasis on the properties of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone around solar-like stars. The sensors will enable PLATO to observe the dimming of a star’s light when a planet passes in front of it. The planned launch of PLATO is in 2026 and it will complete a 4 ½ year mission (potentially extendable by another 4 years).

According to Filippo Marliani, PLATO Project Manager at ESA, the milestone establishes the first delivery of flight grade hardware of the whole PLATO project. It is a fundamental step for the progression of the complex integration and testing of the large number of telescopes in the satellite.