IEEE NPSS Radiation Effect Early Achievement 2020 Award

Caroline Laurent, the Director of Orbital Systems (DSO) at CNES, presented Cédric Virmontois with the IEEE NPSS Radiation Effect Early Achievement 2020 Award.

Cédric Virmontois, an ISAE-SUPAERO alumnus and now head of the CNES's detection chain department, has been awarded the 2020 IEEE NPSS Radiation Effect Early achievement prize. This international award recognizes 10 years of an outstanding career in the field of radiation effects on microelectronics. The award, given once a year, is prized by many young researchers around the world and is usually given to scientists from the largest American laboratories or universities (MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Sandia National Lab...). In early 2020, the steering committee of the IEEE NPSS community decided to reward Cedric for his 10 years of activities on the study of image sensors in radiative environments. In particular, for his significant contribution to the study of the RTS (Random Telegraph Signal) phenomenon which makes visible and infrared image sensor pixels blink. But also, for the consequent work which allowed to evaluate and to qualify the CMOS image sensors for space applications. This work has helped convince space agencies and industrialists to use this technology, the best example being the NASA JPL PERSEVERANCE rover which uses 19 CMOS cameras out of the 23 onboard. Finally, Cédric has given many international courses, he has supervised a dozen Ph.D. students (most of whom have been awarded international prizes) and he has set up the workshop on the effects of radiation on optoelectronic detectors, which has been held every two years in Toulouse since 2012 as part of the CNES COMETs and which now has an international reputation.