A Time-Correlated Single-Photon-Counting Sensor with 14GS/s Histogramming Time-to-Digital Converter

📋 论文概要

本文提出一种基于时间相关单光子计数（TCSPC）的传感器，集成14GS/s直方图时间数字转换器（TDC），用于超快光波形记录。解决了传统TCSPC系统中速度与集成度的瓶颈，适用于激光雷达、3D成像和光学显微镜等应用。

💡 主要创新点

• 实现了14GS/s的高速直方图TDC，显著提升TCSPC系统的采样速率。
• 将单光子雪崩二极管（SPAD）阵列与高速TDC单片集成，降低系统复杂性和功耗。
• 采用直方图累积技术，有效提高时间分辨率和光子计数效率。

🏷 关键词

📄 原文摘要

Andrew J. Holmes2, Bruce Rae2, Lindsay A. Grant2, Robert K. Henderson1 University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2 STMicroelectronics, Edinburgh, United Kingdom 1 Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a photon-efficient technique to record ultra-fast optical waveforms found in numerous applications such as time-of-flight (ToF) range measurement (LIDAR) [1], ToF 3D imaging [2], scanning optical microscopy [3], diffuse optical tomography (DOT) and Raman sensing [4]. Typical instrumentation consists of a pulsed laser source, a discrete detector such as an avalanche photodiode (APD) or photomultiplier tube (PMT), time-to-digital converter (TDC) card and a FPGA or PC to assemble and compute histograms of photon time stamps. Cost and size restrict the number of channels of TCSPC hardware. Having few detection and conversion channels, the technique is limited to processing optical waveforms with low intensity, with less

👥 作者与机构

Neale A. W. Dutton1,2, Salvatore Gnecchi1,2, Luca Parmesan1,2,