Integrated multichannel photon timing instrument with very short dead time and high throughput

Wahl, Michael; Röhlicke, Tino; Rahn, Hans-Jürgen; Erdmann, Rainer; Kell, Gerald; Ahlrichs, Andreas; Kernbach, Martin; Schell, Andreas W.; Benson, Oliver

doi:10.1063/1.4795828

Cited by 40 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Commercial TCSPC systems usually have optimal count rates from SPADs or photomultipler tubes (PMTs), but they are mostly single channel systems. Recently 8 channel [40] and 16 channel [41] TCSPC systems have been introduced. In the case of 16 channel system [41] the channels are not truly independent at high count rates due to the high probability of co-incidence or cross-talk.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

256 × 2 SPAD line sensor for time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

Krstajić¹,

Levitt²,

Poland³

et al. 2015

Opt. Express

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We present a CMOS chip 256 × 2 single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) line sensor, 23.78 µm pitch, 43.7% fill factor, custom designed for time resolved emission spectroscopy (TRES). Integrating time-to-digital converters (TDCs) implement on-chip mono-exponential fluorescence lifetime pre-calculation allowing timing of 65k photons/pixel at 200 Hz line rate at 40 ps resolution using centre-of-mass method (CMM). Per pixel time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) histograms can also be generated with 320 ps bin resolution. We characterize performance in terms of dark count rate, instrument response function and lifetime uniformity for a set of fluorophores with lifetimes ranging from 4 ns to 6 ns. Lastly, we present fluorescence lifetime spectra of multicolor microspheres and skin autofluorescence acquired using a custom built spectrometer. In TCSPC mode, time-resolved spectra are acquired within 5 minutes whilst in CMM mode spectral lifetime signatures are acquired within 2 ms for fluorophore in cuvette and 200 ms for skin autofluorescence. We demonstrate CMOS line sensors to be a versatile tool for time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy by providing parallelized and flexible spectral detection of fluorescence decay.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

256 × 2 SPAD line sensor for time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

Krstajić¹,

Levitt²,

Poland³

et al. 2015

Opt. Express

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“…In all those cases, the time measurement electronics must be duplicated or, at least, smart signal routing must be employed to minimize size and cost of electronics. 12,13 In this paper, we present a stand-alone TDC Card able to measure time intervals up to 10 μs with a constant 10 ps resolution, 21 ps single-shot precision, and 1.25% LSB rms (i.e., 0.125 ps), DNL. The compact dimensions and the multifunction I/O edge-card connector allow easy integration of the Card into multichannel timing measurement systems or in other complex systems requiring precise time measurement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multichannel low power time-to-digital converter card with 21 ps precision and full scale range up to 10 μs

Tamborini

Portaluppi

Villa

et al. 2014

Review of Scientific Instruments

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We present a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) card with a compact form factor, suitable for multichannel timing instruments or for integration into more complex systems. The TDC Card provides 10 ps timing resolution over the whole measurement range, which is selectable from 160 ns up to 10 μs, reaching 21 ps rms precision, 1.25% LSB rms differential nonlinearity, up to 3 Mconversion/s with 400 mW power consumption. The I/O edge card connector provides timing data readout through either a parallel bus or a 100 MHz serial interface and further measurement information like input signal rate and valid conversion rate (typically useful for time-correlated single-photon counting application) through an independent serial link.

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“…If an accurate lifetime measurement requires 100 or more photons, the maximum pixel rate for a FLIM image is already reduced to ~10 kHz resulting in an acquisition time of more than 1.5 minutes for a 1024 × 1024 pixel image. Highly sophisticated counting modules from companies like PicoQuant or Becker & Hickl can extend the count rates of TCSPC systems up-to 40 Mcounts/s using fastest counting electronics [9]. However, this increase in speed comes with a loss in accuracy of the lifetime measurement because of pile-up effects [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single pulse two photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (SP-FLIM) with MHz pixel rate

Eibl¹,

Karpf²,

Weng³

et al. 2017

Biomed. Opt. Express

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Two-photon-excited fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is a chemically specific 3-D sensing modality providing valuable information about the microstructure, composition and function of a sample. However, a more widespread application of this technique is hindered by the need for a sophisticated ultra-short pulse laser source and by speed limitations of current FLIM detection systems. To overcome these limitations, we combined a robust sub-nanosecond fiber laser as the excitation source with high analog bandwidth detection. Due to the long pulse length in our configuration, more fluorescence photons are generated per pulse, which allows us to derive the lifetime with a single excitation pulse only. In this paper, we show high quality FLIM images acquired at a pixel rate of 1 MHz. This approach is a promising candidate for an easy-to-use and benchtop FLIM system to make this technique available to a wider research community.

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Integrated multichannel photon timing instrument with very short dead time and high throughput

Cited by 40 publications

References 31 publications

256 × 2 SPAD line sensor for time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

256 × 2 SPAD line sensor for time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

Multichannel low power time-to-digital converter card with 21 ps precision and full scale range up to 10 μs

Single pulse two photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (SP-FLIM) with MHz pixel rate

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