The French Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) provides high resolution color images from Mars !

The French Space Agency (CNES) has reported the first images obtained on Mars using the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) of the SuperCam instrument (the French contribution to NASA JPL PERSEVERANCE Rover) during the CNES Press Conference. The instrument provides high resolution (<70 µrad per pixel) color images for planetologists.

The RMI was born from a fruitful collaboration between 3DPLUS and CNES. CNES provided its expertise in CMOS image sensors and 3DPLUS brought its knowledge in digital electronics and 3D integration. The image sensor used is a CMV4000 from AMS CMOSIS evaluated by CNES. CNES started to work on the CMV image sensor family in 2011. Since then, CNES has demonstrated through radiation effect studies and intensive qualification work that using COTS sensors for space scientific missions can be reliable and cost-effective. Especially, the radiation hardness of pinned photodiode, Bayer color filter arrays, and per-pixel microlenses are compatible with Mars exploration mission requirements.

The findings related to these years of research have been shared with the community through publications and presentations during the Radiation effects on solid-state optoelectronic detectors workshop hold in Toulouse (France) every two years since 2012 (organized by Optic & Optoelectronic COMET). Cédric Virmontois, alumni from ISAE-SUPAERO, is in charge of the RMI at CNES. For more than a decade, ISAE-SUPAERO / CNES PhD students have been participating in the fundamental study of radiation effects on CMOS image sensors. Through this fruitful collaboration, scientific and technical advances are regularly published in international scientific journals such as IEEE journals.