Most ground-based and space-based Astronomy missions employ 2-dimensional imaging arrays of pixelated sensors. Common examples of these detectors include CCD's and infrared arrays. As ambitions expand, the sizes and complexities of focal planes will increase. Indeed, in just 20 years, infrared Astronomy has witnessed an explosion in the number of pixels in a focal plane from 1 element to 16 megapixels, with designs now being made for billion-pixel focal planes. In this talk, I will describe how detector performance can enable Astronomical discoveries, and how detector testing programs play a fundamental role in the development of the detectors. In particular, I will present recent results from the Independent Detector Testing Laboratory program to characterize the performance of prototype detector arrays being developed for a variety of future astronomy missions. 

Don Figer received his PhD from UCLA in 1995 and designed the optics for the Near-Infrared Spectrograph for the Keck Observatory in 1999. He then served as detector scientist at STScI until present for a number of missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope.