CMOS single photon sensor with in-pixel TDC for Time-of-Flight applications

Author

Villa, Federica ; Lussana, Rudi ; Tamborini, Davide ; Bronzi, Danilo ; Markovic, Branko ; Tosi, Alberto ; Zappa, Franco ; Tisa, Simone

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Elettron., Inf. e Bioingegneria, Politec. di Milano, Milan, Italy

fYear

2013

fDate

3-3 Oct. 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

A CMOS imager that combines single photon sensitivity with photon timing capabilities has been developed for Time-Of-Flight (TOF) measurements and for Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting (TCSPC) applications. A test structure with 32×4 pixels is presented in this paper. Each pixel is based on a 30 μm diameter Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) with low Dark Counting Rate (60 cps at room temperature) and a Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) with 400 ps resolution. Some preliminary measurements confirm the possibility to use this SPAD array in a 3D TOF scanning system.

Keywords

CMOS image sensors; avalanche diodes; photon counting; time of flight spectra; time-digital conversion; 3D TOF scanning system; CMOS imager; CMOS single photon sensor; TCSPC application; TOF measurement; in-pixel TDC; low dark counting rate; photon timing capability; single photon sensitivity; single-photon avalanche diode; size 30 mum; time 400 ps; time-correlated single-photon counting application; time-digital converter; time-of-flight application; time-of-flight measurement; Arrays; Histograms; Measurement by laser beam; Photonics; Temperature measurement; Three-dimensional displays; Time measurement; Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD); Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting; Time-of-Flight (ToF); Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC);

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Time-to-Digital Converters (NoMe TDC), 2013 IEEE Nordic-Mediterranean Workshop on

Conference_Location

Perugia

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-1184-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NoMeTDC.2013.6658230

Filename

6658230