A 100Mphoton/s Time-Resolved Mini-Silicon Photomultiplier with On-Chip Fluorescence Lifetime Estimation in 0.13µm CMOS Imaging Technology

📋 论文概要

该论文提出了一种基于0.13µm CMOS工艺的微型硅光电倍增管，实现了片上荧光寿命估计功能，解决了传统时间相关单光子计数（TCSPC）系统体积大、成本高、功耗高的问题。通过集成SPAD阵列、片上时间数字转换器（TDC）和寿命估计算法，实现了每秒1亿光子（100Mphoton/s）的处理能力。

💡 主要创新点

• 首次在单芯片上集成硅光电倍增管（SiPM）与时间相关单光子计数（TCSPC）功能，包括SPAD阵列和片上TDC。
• 实现了片上荧光寿命的实时估计，无需外部PC处理，大幅降低了系统体积和功耗。
• 达到了100Mphoton/s的高通量率，适合实时荧光寿命成像应用。

🏷 关键词

📄 原文摘要

Kingdom 1 2 Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a technique whereby lowlight signals are recorded with picosecond timing resolution relative to a synchronized optical impulse excitation, in order to extract the characteristic fluorescence decay constant, or lifetime [1]. Typical TCSPC apparatus includes a pulsed optical source, a discrete detector such as an avalanche photodiode (APD) or photomultiplier tube (PMT), external time-to-digital conversion (TDC) hardware and a PC to compute the decay constant, resulting in a bulky, expensive and power-hungry acquisition system. A major limitation of this approach is the restrictively low photon count limit of 1-to-5% of the excitation rate, which

👥 作者与机构

David Tyndall1, Bruce Rae2, David Li3, Justin Richardson4, Jochen Arlt1, Robert Henderson1

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom STMicroelectronics, Edinburgh, United Kingdom 3 University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom 4 Dialog Semiconductor, Edinburgh, United