Fill-factor improvement of Si CMOS single-photon avalanche diode detector arrays by integration of diffractive microlens arrays

Intermite, Giuseppe; McCarthy, Aongus; Warburton, R. J.; Ren, Ximing; Villa, Federica; Lussana, Rudi; Waddie, Andrew J.; Taghizadeh, Mohammad R.; Tosi, Alberto; Zappa, Franco; Buller, Gerald S.

doi:10.1364/oe.23.033777

Cited by 39 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…photosensitive) pixel area ( Figure 1(c)). Examples of SPAD-related microlens developments and sensors are presented in [19,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. The microlenses are typically optimized for specific applications and properties (for example collimation) of the impinging light.…”

Section: Columnparallel Electronicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-photon avalanche diode imagers in biophotonics: review and outlook

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) arrays are solid-state detectors that offer imaging capabilities at the level of individual photons, with unparalleled photon counting and time-resolved performance. This fascinating technology has progressed at a very fast pace in the past 15 years, since its inception in standard CMOS technology in 2003. A host of architectures have been investigated, ranging from simpler implementations, based solely on off-chip data processing, to progressively “smarter” sensors including on-chip, or even pixel level, time-stamping and processing capabilities. As the technology has matured, a range of biophotonics applications have been explored, including (endoscopic) FLIM, (multibeam multiphoton) FLIM-FRET, SPIM-FCS, super-resolution microscopy, time-resolved Raman spectroscopy, NIROT and PET. We will review some representative sensors and their corresponding applications, including the most relevant challenges faced by chip designers and end-users. Finally, we will provide an outlook on the future of this fascinating technology.

show abstract

Section: Columnparallel Electronicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-photon avalanche diode imagers in biophotonics: review and outlook

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…SPAD line sensors place pulse processing electronics below the detectors [138,139], thus allowing a high fill-factor, but this is currently not available for 2D array detectors. One promising solution for improving the light detection efficiency is to use a microlens array in front of the detector to focus the fluorescence signal onto the light-sensitive area [140,141].…”

Section: Spad Arraysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wide-field TCSPC: methods and applications

Hirvonen

Suhling

2016

Meas. Sci. Technol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Typically, with CMOS SPAD detector arrays using TCSPC, a large proportion of an individual pixel is occupied by the on-chip digital circuitry for picosecond resolution time stamping, resulting in a low fill-factor (<5%). CMOS SPAD image sensors equipped with microlens arrays [15,16] have been shown to improve fill-factor, albeit under limited f-number illumination. Practical alternatives include developments in 3D-stacked CMOS [17] and in-pixel capacitance-based analogue counters followed by analog-to-digital converters [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-resolution depth profiling using a range-gated CMOS SPAD quanta image sensor

Ren¹,

Connolly²,

Halimi³

et al. 2018

Opt. Express

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A CMOS single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) quanta image sensor is used to reconstruct depth and intensity profiles when operating in a range-gated mode used in conjunction with pulsed laser illumination. By designing the CMOS SPAD array to acquire photons within a pre-determined temporal gate, the need for timing circuitry was avoided and it was therefore possible to have an enhanced fill factor (61% in this case) and a frame rate (100,000 frames per second) that is more difficult to achieve in a SPAD array which uses time-correlated single-photon counting. When coupled with appropriate image reconstruction algorithms, millimeter resolution depth profiles were achieved by iterating through a sequence of temporal delay steps in synchronization with laser illumination pulses. For photon data with high signal-to-noise ratios, depth images with millimeter scale depth uncertainty can be estimated using a standard cross-correlation approach. To enhance the estimation of depth and intensity images in the sparse photon regime, we used a bespoke clustering-based image restoration strategy, taking into account the binomial statistics of the photon data and non-local spatial correlations within the scene. For sparse photon data with total exposure times of 75 ms or less, the bespoke algorithm can reconstruct depth images with millimeter scale depth uncertainty at a stand-off distance of approximately 2 meters. We demonstrate a new approach to single-photon depth and intensity profiling using different target scenes, taking full advantage of the high fill-factor, high frame rate and large array format of this range-gated CMOS SPAD array.

show abstract

Fill-factor improvement of Si CMOS single-photon avalanche diode detector arrays by integration of diffractive microlens arrays

Cited by 39 publications

References 26 publications

Single-photon avalanche diode imagers in biophotonics: review and outlook

Single-photon avalanche diode imagers in biophotonics: review and outlook

Wide-field TCSPC: methods and applications

High-resolution depth profiling using a range-gated CMOS SPAD quanta image sensor

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About