Light in flight was captured by a single shot of a newly developed backside-illuminated multi-collection-gate image sensor at a frame interval of 10 ns without high-speed gating devices such as a streak camera or post data processes. This paper reports the achievement and further evolution of the image sensor toward the theoretical temporal resolution limit of 11.1 ps derived by the authors. The theoretical analysis revealed the conditions to minimize the temporal resolution. Simulations show that the image sensor designed following the specified conditions and fabricated by existing technology will achieve a frame interval of 50 ps. The sensor, 200 times faster than our latest sensor will innovate advanced analytical apparatuses using time-of-flight or lifetime measurements, such as imaging TOF-MS, FLIM, pulse neutron tomography, PET, LIDAR, and more, beyond these known applications.

The paper presents an ultra-high-speed image sensor for motion pictures of reproducible events emitting very weak light. The sensor is backside-illuminated. Each pixel is equipped with the multiple collection gates (MCG) at the center of the front side. Each collection gate is connected to an in-pixel large memory unit, which can accumulate image signals captured by repetitive imaging. The combination of the backside illumination, image signal accumulation, and slow readout from the in-pixel signal storage after an image capturing operation offers a very high sensitivity. Pipeline signal transfer from the MCG to the in-pixel memory units enables the sensor to achieve a large frame count and a very high frame rate at the same time. A test sensor was fabricated with a pixel count of 32 × 32 pixels. Each pixel is equipped with four collection gates, each connected to a memory unit with 305 elements; thus, with a total frame count of 1220 (305 × 4) frames. The test camera achieved 25 Mfps, while the sensor was designed to operate at 50 Mfps.

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