Environment sensor

As part of a collaboration with the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble and the European H2020 program “SCARBO: Space CARBon Observatory, we have developed a process for manufacturing compact interferometers in silicon technology to be inserted into the first Fourier transform spectro-imagers intended for measuring the main greenhouse gases.

A sequence of appropriate technological steps (lithography, engraving, CMP) had to be defined and validated in order to be able to produce different interferometer matrices on correctly chosen silicon substrates (figure 3). In addition to the need to preserve the surface quality of the silicon (roughness <1nm), the main challenge of this work consists of co-integrating in the same sequence various step depths (from 50nm to 400µm) which will make it possible to differentiate the contributions of different gas including CO2.