Henderson, Robert

Underwood, Ian

Dutton, Neale Arthur William

other

2016-07-25T14:58:49Z

2016-07-25T14:58:49Z

2016-06-27

The facility to capture the arrival of a single photon, is the fundamental limit to the detection of quantised electromagnetic radiation. An image sensor capable of capturing a picture with this ultimate optical and temporal precision is the pinnacle of photo-sensing. The creation of high spatial resolution, single photon sensitive, and time-resolved image sensors in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology offers numerous benefits in a wide field of applications. These CMOS devices will be suitable to replace high sensitivity charge-coupled device (CCD) technology (electron-multiplied or electron bombarded) with significantly lower cost and comparable performance in low light or high speed scenarios. For example, with temporal resolution in the order of nano and picoseconds, detailed three-dimensional (3D) pictures can be formed by measuring the time of flight (TOF) of a light pulse. High frame rate imaging of single photons can yield new capabilities in super-resolution microscopy. Also, the imaging of quantum effects such as the entanglement of photons may be realised. The goal of this research project is the development of such an image sensor by exploiting single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) in advanced imaging-specific 130nm front side illuminated (FSI) CMOS technology. SPADs have three key combined advantages over other imaging technologies: single photon sensitivity, picosecond temporal resolution and the facility to be integrated in standard CMOS technology. Analogue techniques are employed to create an efficient and compact imager that is scalable to mega-pixel arrays. A SPAD-based image sensor is described with 320 by 240 pixels at a pitch of 8μm and an optical efficiency or fill-factor of 26.8%. Each pixel comprises a SPAD with a hybrid analogue counting and memory circuit that makes novel use of a low-power charge transfer amplifier. Global shutter single photon counting images are captured. These exhibit photon shot noise limited statistics with unprecedented low input-referred noise at an equivalent of 0.06 electrons. The CMOS image sensor (CIS) trends of shrinking pixels, increasing array sizes, decreasing read noise, fast readout and oversampled image formation are projected towards the formation of binary single photon imagers or quanta image sensors (QIS). In a binary digital image capture mode, the image sensor offers a look-ahead to the properties and performance of future QISs with 20,000 binary frames per second readout with a bit error rate of 1.7 x 10-3. The bit density, or cumulative binary intensity, against exposure performance of this image sensor is in the shape of the famous Hurter and Driffield densitometry curves of photographic film. Oversampled time-gated binary image capture is demonstrated, capturing 3D TOF images with 3.8cm precision in a 60cm range.

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/15968

en

The University of Edinburgh

Neale A. W. Dutton, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “9.8μm SPAD-based Analogue Single Photon Counting Pixel with Bias Controlled Sensitivity” in International Image Sensor Workshop, June 2013.

Neale A. W. Dutton, Luca Parmesan, Andrew J. Holmes, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “320x240 Oversampled Digital Single Photon Counting Image Sensor,” in IEEE VLSI Symposium, June 2014.

Salvatore Gnecchi, Neale A. W. Dutton, Johannes Vergote, Lindsay A. Grant, David Lee, Sara Pellegrini, Bruce R. Rae, and Robert K. Henderson, “Multiple-event Direct to Histogram TDC in 65nm FPGA Technology,” in IEEE 10th Conference on Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PRIME), July 2014

Luca Parmesan, Neale A. W. Dutton, Neil J. Calder, Andrew J. Holmes, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “A 9.8μm Sample and Hold Time to Amplitude Converter CMOS SPAD Pixel,” in IEEE ESSDERC, September 2014.

Neale A. W. Dutton, Salvatore Gnecchi, Luca Parmesan, Andrew J. Holmes, Bruce R. Rae, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “A Time Correlated Single Photon Counting Sensor with 14GS/s Histogramming Time to Digital Converter,” in ISSCC, IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers, Paper 11.5, February 2015

Neale A. W. Dutton, Luca Parmesan, Salvatore Gnecchi, Istvan Gyongy, Neil J. Calder, Bruce R. Rae, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “Oversampled ITOF Imaging Techniques using SPAD-based Quanta Image Sensors,” in International Image Sensor Workshop, June 2015.

Luca Parmesan, Neale A. W. Dutton, Neil J. Calder, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “A 256x256 SPAD array with in-pixel Time to Amplitude Conversion for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy,” in International Image Sensor Workshop, 2015.

Istvan Gyongy, Neale A. W. Dutton, Luca Parmesan, Amy Davies, Rebecca Saleeb, Rory Duncan, Colin Rickman, Paul Dalgarno, and Robert K. Henderson, “Bit-plane Processing Techniques for Low-Light, High Speed Imaging with a SPAD-based QIS,” in International Image Sensor Workshop, June 2015.

Oscar Almer, Neale A. W. Dutton, Tarek Al Abbas, Salvatore Gnecchi, and Robert K. Henderson “4- PAM Visible Light Communications with a XOR-tree Digital Silicon Photomultiplier” in IEEE Photonics Society, Summer Topicals, July 2015.

Salvatore Gnecchi, Neale A. W. Dutton, Luca Parmesan, Bruce R. Rae, Sara Pellegrini, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “Gphotons/s TCSPC with XOR Digital Silicon Photomultipliers,” in Single Photon Workshop, November 2015.

Salvatore Gnecchi, Neale A. W. Dutton, Luca Parmesan, Bruce R. Rae, Sara Pellegrini, Stuart J. McLeod, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K. Henderson, “A Comparative Analysis between OR-based and XOR-based Digital Silicon Photomultipliers for PET,” in IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, 2015.

Oscar Almer, Dobroslav Tsonev, Neale A. W. Dutton, Tarek Al Abbas, Stefan Videv, Salvatore Gnecchi, Harald Haas, and Robert K. Henderson, “A SPAD-based Visible Light Communications Receiver Employing Higher Order Modulation,” in IEEE Globecom, 2015.

Simon P. Poland, Nikola Krstajic, James Monypenny, Simao Coelho, David Tyndall, Richard J. Walker, Viviane Devauges, Justin Richardson, Neale A. W. Dutton, David Day-Uei Li, Klaus Suhling, Maddy Parsons, Tony Ng, Robert K. Henderson and Simon M. Ameer-Beg “A Time-Resolved Multifocal Multiphoton Microscope for High Speed Fret Imaging In-Vivo,” in Focus on Microscopy, April 2014.

S. P. Poland, N. Krstajić, J. Monypenny, S. Coelho, D. Tyndall, R. J. Walker, V. Devauges, J. Richardson, Neale A.W. Dutton, P. Barber, D. D.-U. Li, K. Suhling, T. Ng, R. K. Henderson, and S. M. Ameer-Beg, “A high speed multifocal multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope for live-cell FRET imaging,” Biomedical Optics Express, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 277, Jan. 2015.

Neale A.W. Dutton, Istvan Gyongy, Luca Parmesan, Salvatore Gnecchi, Neil J. Calder, Bruce R. Rae, Sara Pellegrini, Lindsay A. Grant and Robert K.Henderson “A SPAD-based QVGA Image Sensor for Single Photon Counting and Quanta Imaging”, IEEE Transactions of Electron Devices Special Issue on Solid-State Image Sensors, January 2016.

Salvatore Gnecchi, Neale A. W. Dutton, Luca Parmesan, Bruce R. Rae, Sara Pellegrini, Stuart J. McLeod, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K.Henderson “Digital Silicon Photomultipliers With OR/XOR Pulse Combining Techniques”, IEEE Transactions of Electron Devices, March 2016

Salvatore Gnecchi, Neale A. W. Dutton, Luca Parmesan, Lindsay A. Grant, and Robert K.Henderson “Analysis of Photon Detection Efficiency and Dynamic Range in SPAD based Visible Light Receivers”, IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, April 2016

CMOS

image sensor

SPAD

CMOS SPAD-based image sensor for single photon counting and time of flight imaging

Thesis or Dissertation

Doctoral

PhD Doctor of Philosophy