Miniaturized Sun sensor with in-pixel processing for Attitude Determination of micro space probes

This work presents a novel concept for a miniaturized two-axis asynchronous Sun sensor which will be a part of a sounding rocket- and micro-probe Attitude Determination System. The sensor is composed of only two lines of bio-inspired pixels performing asynchronous in-pixel parallel processing, and two optical slits aligned above the chip. The Sun location is determined with much higher temporal resolution than synchronous sensors could achieve. Furthermore, the sensor output data directly indicates the Sun´s position, without the need for any further processing (except initial calibration procedure). Also the power consumption is expected to be small in comparison to traditional Sun sensors, thanks to abandoning the need for a clock. This approach occupies much less area than previously reported Sun sensors. Hence, the remaining chip area can be used to realise a system-on-chip integrating other sensor interfaces, and processing- and communication units. This allows a high degree of integration and miniaturization which is essential for the planned micro-probe application. The simulations proved the Sun sensor to have temporal resolution of 1ms, standby power consumption of only a few pico-Watts and achieved a resolution of ≈ 0:5°.