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Single-photon image sensors

Published: 29 May 2013 Publication History

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to expose the EDA community to the emerging class of circuits operating with single quanta of energy (e.g. photons or electrical carriers). We describe recent developments in the field of single-photon detection and single-photon imaging based on the avalanche effect. Single-photon detection is useful in a number of applications, from time-of-flight based 3D vision systems to fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, from low-light cameras to quantum random number generators, from positron emission tomography to time-resolved Raman spectroscopy. These applications have speed and accuracy requirements that conventional systems cannot provide if not at a very high cost. EDA has not yet adapted to the revolution introduced by avalanching devices and, though tools capable of simulating these devices exist, there is little or no capability to do so in a coherent flow, let alone at system level. We challenge CAD designers to fill this gap and prepare them to the circuits of the future, quantum in nature but built in standard CMOS technology.

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Cited By

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  • (2022)Crystalline Selenium Layer Stacked Image Sensors With Pixel-Parallel A/D Converters Toward Photon CountingIEEE Transactions on Electron Devices10.1109/TED.2021.313111169:6(2894-2899)Online publication date: Jun-2022

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cover image ACM Conferences
DAC '13: Proceedings of the 50th Annual Design Automation Conference
May 2013
1285 pages
ISBN:9781450320719
DOI:10.1145/2463209
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 29 May 2013

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Author Tags

  1. EDA
  2. SPAD
  3. SiPM
  4. photon counting
  5. silicon photomultiplier
  6. single-photon avalanche diode
  7. single-photon detection
  8. time-resolved imaging

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  • (2022)Crystalline Selenium Layer Stacked Image Sensors With Pixel-Parallel A/D Converters Toward Photon CountingIEEE Transactions on Electron Devices10.1109/TED.2021.313111169:6(2894-2899)Online publication date: Jun-2022

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