Electrons: Do we really need them?

Summary form only given. Are electrons the only carrier of energy and information? This is not an exotic, purely academic question. Now, like never before, the supremacy of electrons and electronics based IT is in question. With the emergence of photonics and the appearance new information carriers, the question is real. In this talk I will discuss time-resolved imaging, single-photon detection, unconventional image sensors, and their applications, as well as new potential carriers of information. This is a very dynamic area of research, thanks to the emergence of deep-submicron CMOS SPADs or single photon avalanche diodes. Thanks to large, massively parallel CMOS SPAD arrays, the design of scalable single-photon imagers has become a reality. SPAD pixels exhibit high sensitivity and dynamic range, low jitter and high stability. Moreover, due to the digital nature of SPADs, imaging architectures may be significantly simplified with the elimination of traditional components such as amplifiers, sample&holds, and analog-to-digital converters, as well as complex readout schemes and 1/f or FPN suppression techniques. SPADs will enable to see inside quantum phenomena; understanding how to sense and model macroscopic phenomena using the quantum paradigm has enabled breakthroughs in a number of disciplines from computer vision to telecommunications, from bio-detection to medical imaging, where an even greater potential exists. I will discuss some of these breakthroughs and the pros and cons of this technology.