A CMOS 64×48 Single Photon Avalanche Diode Array with Event-Driven Readout

Abstract

Abstract-This paper presents a CMOS array of 64 48 pixels capable of detecting single photons with timing accuracies better than 80ps. Upon photon arrival, a digital pulse is generated and routed by an event-driven digital readout scheme to a specific location for further processing. This method allows non-sequential row-wise and simultaneous column-wise detection while preserving photon arrival timing information. The readout scheme is scalable and it is shown to have minimal impact on timing accuracy. Time-correlated fluorescence spectroscopy and optical rangefinders are among the target applications for this technology.

Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiodes in Standard CMOS Technologies

“…On the contrary, in event-driven readout only the pixels that have received a pulse are read (figure 23 C), and this is optimal when only a small part of the array receives information. In this case, the electronics becomes more complicated than for sequential readout, but the timing is noticeably reduced (Niclass et al, 2006a).…”

“…In (Niclass & Charbon, 2005) a 64x64 image sensor with single pixel readout is employed for 3D imaging. Another APD array based on event-driven reading was also developed using the same technology (Niclass et al, 2006a). The evolution of the technologies also produces an evolution on the sensors, and some arrays were presented using 0.35 m technology (Sergio et al, 2007).…”

Towards large scale CMOS single-photon detector arrays for lab-on-chip applications

“…One of the advantages of simple configurations such as this is that one can incorporate a SPAD in a digital circuit whereby the remainder of it is based on standard cells and can be synthesized, placed, routed and verified using automated or semi-automated tools. A design obtained in this way was demonstrated, for example, in [47]. Figure 11 shows a detail of the design.…”

“…Another solution is to access every pixel independently but sequentially using a digital random access scheme [36,37]. In low-light-level (LLL) applications, such as in bioluminescence setups, one can use an event-driven readout, where the detector initiates and drives a column-wise detection process directly [46,47]. The drawback of this approach is that multiple photons cannot be detected simultaneously on the same column.…”

FPGA/DSP-based implementation of a high-performance multi-channel counter

“…In the last few years SPADs performance has been greatly improved [3], thanks to the development of high-speed quenching circuits [17] and the successful implementation in CMOS technology [10], [8]. For this reason, high performance pulse counters are needed to make the exploitation of these new devices possible and to significantly improve the applications in which they are used.…”