A Novel, High-Dynamic-Range, High-Speed, and High-Sensitivity CMOS Imager Using Time-Domain Single-Photon Counting and Avalanche Photodiodes

This paper investigates the use of image sensors based on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) in high dynamic range (HDR) imaging by combining photon counts and timestamps. The proposed method is validated experimentally with an SPAD detector based on a per-pixel time-to-digital converter (TDC) architecture. The detector, featuring 32 × 32 pixels with 44.64-µm pitch, 19.48% fill factor, and time-resolving capability of ~295-ps, was fabricated in a 150-nm CMOS standard technology. At high photon flux densities, the pixel output is saturated when operating in photon-counting mode, thus limiting the DR of this imager. This limitation can be overcome by exploiting the distribution of photon arrival times in each pixel, which shows an exponential behavior with a decay rate dependent on the photon flux level. By fitting the histogram curve with the exponential decay function, the extracted time constant is used to estimate the photon count. This approach achieves 138.7-dB dynamic range within 30-ms of integration time, and can be further extended by using a timestamping mechanism with a higher resolution.

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MYTHEN Detector – Perspectives in Residual Stress Measurements

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.996.203 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 996 ◽

pp. 203-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dubravka Sisak Jung ◽

Lasse Suominen ◽

Jari Parantainen ◽

Christoph Hoermann

Keyword(s):

Residual Stress ◽

Dynamic Range ◽

Single Photon ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Photon Counting ◽

High Dynamic Range ◽

Single Photon Counting ◽

Stress Measurements ◽

Technical Details ◽

Radiation Hard

MYTHEN is a single-photon-counting strip detector. Its main features are high spatial resolution, zero noise, fluorescence suppression, fast readout, high dynamic range, radiation-hard and maintenance-free design. Perspectives of such a detector in residual stress measurements involve: (i) Measurements of absorbing/thick materials (ii) Well resolved peaks (iii) excellent signal-to-noise ratio (iv) Analysis of alloys (v) Fast data collection (vi) Accurate low content retained austenite measurements (vii) in situ measurements and mapping (viii) infinite life cycle. Technical details and application in synchrotron and laboratory diffractometers will be presented.

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Development of Ultra High Sensitivity UV Silicon Carbide Detectors

Materials Science Forum ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.527-529.1461 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 527-529 ◽

pp. 1461-1464 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Feng Yan ◽

Xiao Bin Xin ◽

Petre Alexandrov ◽

Carl M Stahle ◽

Bing Guan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Silicon Carbide ◽

Single Photon ◽

Avalanche Photodiodes ◽

Photon Counting ◽

High Sensitivity ◽

Single Photon Counting ◽

Linear Mode ◽

Low Leakage ◽

Low Leakage Current ◽

Photo Detectors

A variety of silicon carbide (SiC) detectors have been developed to study their sensitivity, including Schottky photodiodes, p-i-n photodiodes, avalanche photodiodes (APDs), and single photon-counting APDs. Due to the very wide bandgap and thus extremely low leakage current, SiC photo-detectors show excellent sensitivity. The specific detectivity, D*, of SiC photodiodes are many orders of magnitude higher than the D* of other solid state detectors, and for the first time, comparable to that of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). SiC APDs have also been fabricated to pursue the ultimate sensitivity. By operating the SiC APDs at a linear mode gain over 106, single photoncounting avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) in UV have been demonstrated.

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Architectures for High Dynamic Range, High Speed Image Sensor Readout Circuits

IFIP International Federation for Information Processing - VLSI-SoC: Research Trends in VLSI and Systems on Chip ◽

10.1007/978-0-387-74909-9_1 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 1-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sam Kavusi ◽

Kunal Ghosh ◽

Abbas Gamal

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Dynamic Range ◽

High Dynamic Range ◽

Image Sensor ◽

Readout Circuits ◽

High Dynamic

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Pseudo-random single photon counting system: a high speed implementation and its applications

10.1117/12.874390 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Qiang Zhang ◽

Nanguang Chen

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Single Photon ◽

Photon Counting ◽

Counting System ◽

Single Photon Counting ◽

System A

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High Dynamic Range Imaging at the Quantum Limit with Single Photon Avalanche Diode-Based Image Sensors

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18041166 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1166 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Neale Dutton ◽

Tarek Al Abbas ◽

Istvan Gyongy ◽

Francescopaolo Mattioli Della Rocca ◽

Robert Henderson

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Range ◽

Single Photon ◽

High Dynamic Range ◽

Image Sensors ◽

Quantum Limit ◽

High Dynamic Range Imaging ◽

Range Imaging ◽

Avalanche Diode ◽

High Dynamic

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Electronic Optical Sky Surveys

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900128207 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 179 ◽

pp. 49-55

Author(s):

T.A. McKay

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Range ◽

Large Fraction ◽

High Sensitivity ◽

High Dynamic Range ◽

Low Noise ◽

Computer Hardware ◽

Optical Detectors ◽

Small Fields ◽

Technical Advances ◽

High Dynamic

The introduction of of Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) in the middle 1970s provided astronomy with nearly perfect (linear, high-sensitivity, low-noise, high dynamic-range, digital) optical detectors. Unfortunately, restrictions imposed by CCD production and cost has typically limited their use to observations of relatively small fields. Recently a combination of technical advances have made practical the application of CCDs to survey science. CCD mosaic cameras, which help overcome the size restrictions imposed by CCD manufacture, allow electronic access to a larger fraction of the available focal plane. Multi-fiber spectrographs, which couple the low-noise, high QE performance of CCDs with the ability to observe spectra for many objects at once, have improved the spectroscopic efficiency of telescopes by factors approaching half a million. An improved understanding of image distortion gives us telescopes on which we expect sub-arcsecond images a large fraction of the time. Finally, and perhaps most important, the performance of computer hardware continues to advance, to the point where analysis of multi-terabyte datasets, while still daunting, is at least conceivable.

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