High Photon Throughput SPAD Imager

MDPI Special Issue The International SPAD Sensor Workshop publishes a paper "A CMOS SPAD Imager with Collision Detection and 128 Dynamically Reallocating TDCs for Single-Photon Counting and 3D Time-of-Flight Imaging" by Chao Zhang, Scott Lindner, Ivan Michel Antolovic, Martin Wolf, and Edoardo Charbon from Delft University of Technology, University of Zurich, EPFL, and Kavli Institute of Nanoscience.

"Per-pixel time-to-digital converter (TDC) architectures have been exploited by single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) sensors to achieve high photon throughput, but at the expense of fill factor, pixel pitch and readout efficiency. In contrast, TDC sharing architecture usually features high fill factor at small pixel pitch and energy efficient event-driven readout. While the photon throughput is not necessarily lower than that of per-pixel TDC architectures, since the throughput is not only decided by the TDC number but also the readout bandwidth. In this paper, a SPAD sensor with 32 × 32 pixels fabricated with a 180 nm CMOS image sensor technology is presented, where dynamically reallocating TDCs were implemented to achieve the same photon throughput as that of per-pixel TDCs. Each 4 TDCs are shared by 32 pixels via a collision detection bus, which enables a fill factor of 28% with a pixel pitch of 28.5 μm. The TDCs were characterized, obtaining the peak-to-peak differential and integral non-linearity of −0.07/+0.08 LSB and −0.38/+0.75 LSB, respectively. The sensor was demonstrated in a scanning light-detection-and-ranging (LiDAR) system equipped with an ultra-low power laser, achieving depth imaging up to 10 m at 6 frames/s with a resolution of 64 × 64 with 50 lux background light."

Funding News: All Money Invested in Automotive Startups

Adasky, an Israeli developer of Far-Infrared camera (FIR) for autonomous vehicles, has secured $20M from a lead investor, Sungwoo Hitech, a Korean automotive supplier. The investment is part of a larger round of funding, and will
enable the company to expand globally. AdaSky’s solution, Viper, is an all-in-one, complete solution for autonomous vehicles, combining FIR camera technology with fusion-ready, deep-learning computer vision algorithms.

“Viper is the smallest, highest-resolution thermal camera for autonomous vehicles on the market. We strongly believe that AdaSky’s technology will enable 24/7 sight and perception for vehicles and put us all on the path to fully autonomous driving,” said Myung-Keun Lee, Chairman & Co-CEO of Sungwoo Hitech.

EETimes: Solid-state LiDAR company Sense Photonics founded in 2016 and based in North Caroline raises $14.4m. The company previously raised $2.8m in 2016. TSense Photonics plans to use the money address the autonomous vehicle, UAV and industrial automation markets.

The company's patent applications reveal a design based on VSCEL array and unspecified ToF sensor"

BusinessWire: Korean SOS Lab (Smart Optical Sensors Lab) has raised $6m for its automotive LiDAR. The lead investor in this series A round is Mando, a top-tier automotive supplier.

BusinessWire: In spite of rumors about technological troubles, Quanergy announces its Series C funding at a valuation exceeding $2 billion, with an un-named global top-tier fund as the lead investor. The Series C financing is sad to take the company well beyond its planning horizons to cash-flow and operating breakeven, and keeps the company’s IPO process on track.

"Demand for Quanergy’s solutions continues to be strong, with revenue increasing rapidly and bookings exceeding forecast. Product and software development continues at a brisk pace. Substantial orders for the company’s S3 solid-state sensor were fulfilled this year. Rapid innovation continues to increase the field of view (FoV) and range for the S3 in outdoor environments.

Since the end of 2017, Quanergy has had an annual production capacity of one million solid-state sensors at its fully automated production line in Silicon Valley. The completion of this round of financing will further enhance the company's capital reserve, to accelerate innovation and commercialization of its hardware, software and smart sensing solutions, and construction of ultra-large-scale production facilities."

"With our advanced technology, we have reduced the price of solid-state LiDAR to a few hundred dollars in volume,” said Louay Eldada, CEO of Quanergy. “Our third-generation solid-state LiDAR is being developed to fully integrate the sensor on a single chip. For Quanergy, the most important focus at the moment is to speed up the production ramping and prove our strength with mass-produced products."

PRNewswire: Israeli Guardian Optical Technologies announces an additional investment of $2.5m. The new investment is part of a pre-B round that totals $5.6M that will be used to expand the R&D team to serve the companies' expanding customer base as well as supporting customers' projects.

Guardian Optical sensor empowers car manufacturers to build safer cars, and at a lower cost, by eliminating the need to install multiple sensors throughout the car. Patent-pending sensor technology provides real-time, information on occupancy status based on three interconnected layers of information: video image recognition (2D), depth mapping (3D), and micro- to macro-motion detection. The sensor detects the location and physical dimensions of each occupant and can identify the difference between a person and an inanimate object.

Sensation Cooperation Project in Europe

SENSATION, a project within the EUREKA PENTA Cluster managed by AENEAS Industry Association, is developing innovative image capture, transmission and processing technologies for high-end Machine Vision and Broadcast applications. The project focuses on key requirements common to all professional vision-based applications namely: higher spatial resolution, higher frame rate, wider colour gamut, higher DR and improved image quality.

Machine vision calls for small pixel, high resolution sensors that can perform high quality inspection at high speeds. In the broadcast market, demand is being driven by the migration from HDTV to UHDTV. The UHDTV standard supports 4K and 8K resolutions, 12 bits per pixel (compared to 10 bits in HDTV), a wider colour gamut and an increased DR.

The SENSATION project brings together key European players in the imaging industry including R&D institutes specialized in image sensor technologies, image sensor designs and video processing; fabless design houses; a semiconductor manufacturer; image compression experts and system integrators. Through this collaboration the partners can strengthen Europe’s ability to compete in global markets for image capture, processing and transmission.

The partners will cooperate on the development of the following:

• Development of (building blocks for) CMOS image sensors: smaller global shutter pixels, increased dynamic range, increased data rates, auto-focus pixels, improved ADC’s, ultra-high-speed architectures and high speed serial interfaces
• New solutions for camera transmission
• Demonstration of results in cameras for Machine Vision and Broadcast, and demonstration of separate image sensor evaluation set-ups
• Standards for a high-speed serial interface for image sensors, image compression and camera interfaces.

Thanks to AT for the info!

Image Sensor Papers at IEDM 2018

Image sensor papers have a strong appearance in IEDM 2018 Program:

1.5µm dual conversion gain, backside illuminated image sensor using stacked pixel level connections with 13ke- full-well capacitance and 0.8e- noise
V. C. Venezia, A. C-W Hsiung, K. Ai, X. Zhao, Zhiqiang Lin, Duli Mao, Armin Yazdani, Eric A. G. Webster, L. A. Grant, OmniVision Technologies
A 1.5µm pixel size, 8 mega pixel density, dual conversion gain (DCG), back side illuminated CMOS image sensor (CIS) is described having a linear full-well capacity (FWC) of 13ke- and total noise of 0.8e- RMS at 8x gain. The sensor adopts a world smallest 1.5µm pitch, stacked pixel-level connection (SPLC) technology with greater than 8M connections, maximizing fill-factor of the photodiode and dimensions of the associated transistor dimensions to achieve a large FWC and low noise performance at the same time. In addition, by allocating transistors into two different layers, the DCG function can be realized with 1.5µm pixel size.

A 0.68e-rms Random-Noise 121dB Dynamic-Range Sub-pixel architecture CMOS Image Sensor with LED Flicker Mitigation
S. Iida, Y. Sakano, T. Asatsuma, M. Takami, I. Yoshiba, N. Ohba, H. Mizuno, T. Oka, K. Yamaguchi, A. Suzuki, K. Suzuki, M. Yamada, M. Takizawa, Y. Tateshita, and K. Ohno, Sony Semiconductor
This is a report of a CMOS image sensor with a sub-pixel architecture having a pixel pitch of 3 um. The aforementioned sensor achieves both ultra-low random noise of 0.68e-rms and high dynamic range of 121 dB in a single exposure, further realizing LED flicker mitigation.

A 24.3Me- Full Well Capacity CMOS Image Sensor with Lateral Overflow Integration Trench Capacitor for High Precision Near Infrared Absorption Imaging
M. Murata, R. Kuroda, Y. Fujihara, Y. Aoyagi, H. Shibata*, T. Shibaguchi*, Y. Kamata*, N. Miura*, N. Kuriyama*and S. Sugawa, Tohoku University, *LAPIS Semiconductor Miyagi Co., Ltd.
This paper presents a 16um pixel pitch CMOS image sensor exhibiting 24.3Me- full well capacity with a record spatial efficiency of 95ke-/um2 and high quantum efficiency in near infrared waveband by the introduction of lateral overflow integration trench capacitor on a very low dopant concentration p-type Si substrate. A diffusion of 5mg/dl concentration glucose was clearly visualized by an over 71dB SNR absorption imaging at 1050nm.

HDR 98dB 3.2µm Charge Domain Global Shutter CMOS Image Sensor (Invited)
A. Tournier, F. Roy, Y. Cazaux*, F. Lalanne, P. Malinge, M. Mcdonald, G. Monnot**, N. Roux**, STMicroelectronics, **CEA Leti, **STMicroelectronics
We developed a High Dynamic Range (HDR) Global Shutter (GS) pixel for automotive applications working in the charge domain with dual high-density storage node using Capacitive Deep Trench Isolation (CDTI). With a pixel size of 3.2µm, this is the smallest reported GS pixel achieving linear dynamic range of 98dB with a noise floor of 2.8e-. The pinned memory isolated by CDTI can store 2 x 8000e- with dark current lower than 5e-/s at 60°C. A shutter efficiency of 99.97% at 505nm and a Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) at 940nm better than 0.5 at Nyquist frequency is also reported.

High Performance 2.5um Global Shutter Pixel with New Designed Light-Pipe Structure
T. Yokoyama, M. Tsutsui,Y. Nishi, I. Mizuno, V. Dmitry, A. Lahav TowerJazz
We developed a 2.5um global shutter (GS) CMOS image sensor pixel using an advanced Light-Pipe (LP) structure designed with novel guidelines. To the best of our knowledge, it is the smallest reported GS pixel in the world. The developed pixel shows an excellent Quantum Efficiency (QE), Angular Responses (AR) and very low Parasitic Light Sensitivity (PLS). Also, even in oblique light condition of 10 degrees, the 1/PLS is maintained to about half value. These key characteristics allow development of ultra-high resolution sensors, industrial cameras with wide aperture lenses and low form factors optical modules for GS mobile applications.

Back-Illuminated 2.74 µm-Pixel-Pitch Global Shutter CMOS Image Sensor with Charge-Domain Memory Achieving 10k e- Saturation Signal
Y. Kumagai, R. Yoshita, N. Osawa, H. Ikeda, K.Yamashita, T. Abe, S. Kudo, J. Yamane, T. Idekoba, S. Noudo, Y. Ono, S.Kunitake, M. Sato, N. Sato, T. Enomoto, K. Nakazawa, H. Mori, Y. Tateshita, and K. Ohno, Sony Semiconductor
A 3208×2184 global shutter image sensor with back-illuminated architecture is implemented in a 90 nm/65 nm imaging process. The sensor, having 2.74 µm-pitch-pixels, achieves 10000 electrons full-well capacity and -80 dB parasitic light sensitivity. Furthermore, 13.8 e-/s dark current at 60°C and 1.85 erms random noise are obtained. In this paper, the structure of a pixel with memory along with saturation enhancement technology is described.

A CMOS Proximity Capacitance Image Sensor with 16µm Pixel Pitch, 0.1aF Detection Accuracy and 60 Frames Per Second
M. Yamamoto, R. Kuroda, M. Suzuki, T. Goto, H. Hamori*, S. Murakami*, T. Yasuda*, and S. Sugawa, Tohoku University, *OHT Inc.
A 16µm pixel pitch 60 frames per second CMOS proximity capacitance image sensor fabricated by a 0.18µm CMOS process technology is presented. By the introduction of noise cancelling operation, both fixed pattern noise and kTC noise are significantly reduced, resulting in the 0.1aF detection accuracy. Proximity capacitance imaging results using the developed sensor are also demonstrated.

Through-silicon-trench in back-side-illuminated CMOS image sensors for the improvement of gate oxide long term performance
A. Vici, F. Russo*, N. Lovisi*, L. Latessa*, A. Marchioni*, A. Casella*, F. Irrera, Sapienza University of Rome, *LFoundry, a SMIC Company
To improve the gate oxide long term performance of MOSFETs in back side illuminated CMOS image sensors the wafer back is patterned with suitable through-silicon-trenches. We demonstrate that the reliability improvement is due to the annealing of the gate oxide border traps thanks to passivating chemical species carried by trenches.

High-Performance Germanium-on-Silicon Lock-in Pixels for Indirect Time-of-Flight Applications
N. Na, S.-L. Cheng, H.-D. Liu, M.-J. Yang, C.-Y. Chen, H.-W. Chen, Y.-T. Chou, C.-T. Lin, W.-H. Liu, C.-F. Liang, C.-L. Chen, S.-W. Chu, B.-J. Chen, Y.-F. Lyu, and S.-L. Chen, Artilux Inc.
We investigate and demonstrate the first Ge-on-Si lock-in pixels for indirect time-of-flight measurements. Compared to conventional Si lock-in pixels, such novel Ge-on-Si lock-in pixels simultaneously maintain a high quantum efficiency and a high demodulation contrast at a higher operation frequency, which enable consistently superior depth accuracies for both indoor and outdoor scenarios. System performances are evaluated, and pixel quantum efficiencies are measured to be more than 85% and more than 46% at 940nm and 1550nm wavelengths, respectively, along with demodulation contrasts measured to be higher than 0.81 at 300MHz. Our work may open up new routes to high-performance indirect time-of-flight sensors and imagers, as well as potential adoptions of eye-safe lasers (e.g. wavelengths longer than 1.4µm) for consumer electronics and photonics.

CMOS-Integrated Single-Photon-Counting X-Ray Detector using an Amorphous-Selenium Photoconductor with 11×11-µm2 Pixels
A. Camlica, A. El-Falou, R. Mohammadi, P. M. Levine, and K. S. Karim, University of Waterloo
We report, for the first time, results from a single-photon-counting X-ray detector monolithically integrated with an amorphous semiconductor. Our prototype detector combines amorphous selenium (a-Se), a well known X-ray photoconductive material suitable for large-area applications, with a 0.18-µm-CMOS readout integrated circuit containing two 26×196 photon counting pixel arrays. The detector features 11×11-um2 pixels to overcome a-Se count-rate limitations by unipolar charge sensing of the faster charge carriers (holes) via a unique pixel geometry that leverages the small pixel effect for the first time in an amorphous semiconductor. Measured results from a mono-energetic radioactive source are presented and demonstrate the untapped potential of using amorphous semiconductors for high-spatial-resolution photon-counting Xray imaging applications.

High Performance 2D Perovskite/Graphene Optical Synapses as Artificial Eyes
H. Tian, X. Wang, F. Wu, Y. Yang, T.-L. Ren, Tsinghua University
Conventional von Neumann architectures feature large power consumptions due to memory wall. Partial distributed architecture using synapses and neurons can reduce the power. However, there is still data bus between image sensor and synapses/neurons, which indicates plenty room to further lower the power consumptions. Here, a novel concept of all distributed architecture using optical synapse has been proposed. An ultrasensitive artificial optical synapse based on a graphene/2D perovskite heterostructure shows very high photo-responsivity up to 730 A/W and high stability up to 74 days. Moreover, our optical synapses has unique reconfigurable light-evoked excitatory/inhibitory functions, which is the key to enable image recognition. The demonstration of an optical synapse array for direct pattern recognition shows an accuracy as high as 80%. Our results shed light on new types of neuromorphic vision applications, such as artificial eyes.

Hybrid bonding for 3D stacked image sensors: impact of pitch shrinkage on interconnect robustness
J. Jourdon,, S. Lhostis, S. Moreau**, J. Chossat, M. Arnoux***, C. Sart, Y. Henrion, P. Lamontagne, L. Arnaud**, N. Bresson**, V. Balan**, C. Euvrard**, Y. Exbrayat**, D. Scevola, E. Deloffre, S. Mermoz, A. Martin***, H. Bilgen, F. Andre, C. Charles, D. Bouchu**, A. Farcy, S. Guillaumet, A. Jouve**, H. Fremont*, and S. Cheramy**, STMicroelectronics, *University of Bordeaux, **CEA-LETI, ***STMicroelectronics
We present the first 3D-stacked CMOS Image Sensor with a bonding pitch of 1.44 µm. The influence of the hybrid bonding pitch shrinkage (8.8 to 1.44 µm) from the process point of view to a functional device via the robustness aspect is studied. Smaller bonding pads do not lead to any specific failure.

Few other papers that are not directly related to imaging, but might become more relevant some day:

100-340GHz Systems: Transistors and Applications (Invited),
M.J.W. Rodwell, Y. Fang, J. Rode, J. Wu, B. Markman, S. T. Suran Brunelli, J. Klamkin, M Urteaga*, University of California, Santa Barbara, *Teledyne Scientific Company
We examine potential 100-340 GHz wireless applications in communications and imaging, and examine the prospects of developing the mm-wave transistors needed to support these applications.

High Voltage Generation Using Deep Trench Isolated Photodiodes in a Back Side Illuminated Process
F. Kaklin, J. M. Raynor*, R. K. Henderson, The University of Edinburgh, *STMicroelectronics Imaging Division
We demonstrate passive high voltage generation using photodiodes biased in the photovoltaic region of operation. The photodiodes are integrated in a 90nm back side illuminated (BSI) deep trench isolation (DTI) capable imaging process technology. Four equal area, DTI separated arrays of photodiodes are implemented on a single die and connected using on-chip transmission gates (TG). The TGs control interconnects between the four arrays, connecting them in series or in parallel. A series configuration successfully generates an open-circuit voltage of 1.98V at 1klux. The full array generates 423nW/mm2 at 1klux of white LED illumination in series mode and 425nW/mm2 in parallel mode. Peak conversion efficiency is estimated at 16.1%, at 5.7klux white LED illumination.

Error-Resilient Analog Image Storage and Compression with Analog-Valued RRAM Arrays: An Adaptive Joint Source-Channel Coding Approach
X. Zheng, R. Zarcone*, D. Paiton*, J. Sohn, W. Wan, B. Olshausen* and H. -S. Philip Wong, Stanford University, *University of California, Berkeley
We demonstrate by experiment an image storage and compression task by directly storing analog image data onto an analog-valued RRAM array. A joint source-channel coding algorithm is developed with a neural network to encode and retrieve natural images. The encoder and decoder adapt jointly to the statistics of the images and the statistics of the RRAM array in order to minimize distortion. This adaptive joint source-channel coding method is resilient to RRAM array non-idealities such as cycle-to-cycle and device-to-device variations, time-dependent variability, and non-functional storage cells, while achieving a reasonable reconstruction performance of ~ 20 dB using only 0.1 devices/pixel for the analog image.

Pixart Reports Quarterly Results

Pixart Q3 2018 report shows that optical mouse sensor business keeps going strong:

Event-Based Vision to Dominate MV Applications?

InVision.de publishes Prophesee article with bold predictions for the machine vision future:

"Event-based vision is poised to take over from the frame-based approach used by traditional film, digital and mobile phone cameras in many machine-vision applications. The mode of operation of state-of-the-art image sensors is useful for exactly one thing: photography, i.e. for taking an image of a still scene.

An ´ideal´ image sensor samples parts of the scene that contain fast motion and changes at high sampling rates and slow changing parts at slow rates, all at the same time – with the sampling rate going to zero if nothing changes. Obviously, this will not work using one common single sampling rate, the frame rate, for all pixels of a sensor. Conversely, one wants to have as many sampling rates as there are pixel in the sensor – and let each pixel’s sampling rate adapt to the part of the scene it sees."

Sony Adds Square 1MP Sensor to its GS Family

Sony IMX419CLN sensor has 1MP 3.45um GS pixels and square pixel array and is intended for industrial B&W cameras.

MEMSDrive Speeds Up Super-Resolution Imaging

MEMSDrive says its image stabilization approach makes super-resolution image capturing faster:

Two Toulouse Workshops Program

“Radiation Effects on Optoelectronic Detectors” workshop to be held in Toulouse, France on Nov 27, 2018, publishes its program with many interesting presentations:

• Radiation Hardness Comparison of CMOS Image Sensor Technologies at High Total Ionizing Dose Levels S. Rizzolo, V. Goiffon, F.Corbière, R. Molina A. Chabane, P. Magnan, ISAE SUPAERO; S. Girard, A. Boukenter, T. Allanche, Univ. Saint-Etienne; P. Paillet, C. Muller, CEA DAM DIF; C. Monsanglant, Louvet, M. Osmond, H. Desjonqueres, IRSN; J-R Macé, New AREVA; P. Burnichon, J-P Baudu, OPTSYS; S. Plumeri, ANDRA
• CIS113 Ionising Radiation Tolerance
  P. Turner, W. Hubbard, T. Lemon, Teledyne-E2V
• Total Ionizing Dose Radiation Induced Dark Current Random Telegraph Signal in Pinned Photodiode CMOS Image Sensors
  C. Durnez, Airbus DS (formerly CNES/ISAE SUPAERO/ SOFRADIR); V. Goiffon, S. Rizzolo, P. Magnan, ISAE SUPAERO; C. Virmontois, CNES; P. Paillet, C. Marcandella, CEA DAM DIF; L. Rubaldo, SOFRADIR
• MTG-FCI Qualification Phase Gamma and Proton Test Results
  R. Simpson, A. Walker, W, Hubbard, Teledyne E2V
• Effect of Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation one CMOS SPADs for Charged Particle Tracking
  L. Ratti, M. Musacci, C. Vacchi, Univ. Pavia/INFN Pavia; P. Brogi, P.S. Marrocchesi, Univ. Siena/INFN Pisa; G. Collazuol, Univ. Padova/INFN Padova; G.-F. Dalla Betta, A. Ficorella, L. Pancheri Univ. Trento/TIFPA; L. Lodola, STMicroelectronics; F. Morsani, INFN Pisa
• Radiation Testing of the CIS115 CMOS Sensor for the JANUS Camera on ESA’s JUICE Mission
  M. Soman, D.-D. Lofthouse-Smith, C. Crews, E. Allanwood, A. Holland, K. Stefanov, M. Leese, The Open University; P. Turner, J. Pratlong, Teledyne-E2V
• Dose and Single Event Effects on Color CMOS Camera for Space Exploration
  C. Virmontois, J.-M. Belloir, A. Bardoux, CNES; M. Beaumel, A. Vriet, SODERN; N. Perrot, C. Sellier, J. Bezine, D. Gambart, D. Blain, E. Garci-Sanchez, W. Mouallem, 3DPLUS
• Radiation Effects in Pinned Photodiode CMOS Image Sensors: Variation of Photodiode Implant Dose
  J.-M. Belloir, C. Virmontois, A. Materne, A. Bardoux, CNES; V. Goiffon, M. Estribeau, P. Magan, ISAE SUPAERO
• Radiation Induced Leakage Current in CMOS Image Sensor Floating Diffusion
  A. Le Roch, V. Goiffon, S. Rizzolo, F. Pace, C. Durnez, P. Magnan, ISAE SUPAERO; C. Virmontois, J.-M. Belloir, CNES; P. Paillet, CEA DAM DIF
• Random telegraph signal investigation in different CMOS SPAD layout
  D. Fiore, F. Di Capua, M. Campajola, Univ. Calabria, INFN Cosenza
• Neutron Irradiation of CCDs and Characterisation using Trap Pumping
  N. Bush, The Open University
• Experimental Measurements of Damage Factors in Silicon Devices: Comparisons with NIEL
  T. Nuns, C. Inguimbert, S. Soonckindt, ONERA; B. Dryer, T. Buggey, The Open University; C. Poivey, ESA
• NIEL Scaling Approach Reliability
  C. Inguimbert, T. Nuns, ONERA
• A Comparison of p-channel and n-channel CCD Technologies Following Cryogenic Proton Irradiation
  A Holland, N Bush, B Dryer, D Hall, The Open University; P. Jerram, Teledyne-E2V
• Investigating Differences in End-of-life Performance and Defects Properties of PLATO CCDs: Warm versus Cold Proton Irradiation
  T. Prod’homme, P. Verhoeve, F. Lemmel, H. Smit, S. Blommaert, C. Van der Luijt, I. Visser, T. Beaufort, Y. Levillain, B. Shortt, ESA
• Modelling of Luminescence Induced by Proton Irradiation in HgCdTe Infrared Detector Array in Space Environment
  T. Pichon, S. Mouzali, O. Boulade, O. Limousin, CEA Dap; G. Badano, A. Ferron, O. Gravrand, CEA LETI
• High-energy electrons impact on Sofradir NGP and Teledyne H1RG IR MCT arrays for JUICE/MAJIS instrument
  P. Guiot, M. Vincendon, Y. Langevin, A. Carapelle, J. Carter, IAS
• Live Readout of the Device Under Test for Proton Irradiation Dosimetry During the First Space Component Proton Irradiations with the MC40 Accelerator at Birmingham
  M. Soman, N. Bush, R. Adlard, X. Meng, A. Holland, The Open University; T. Price, Univ. Birmingham

“Ultra-Violet Detectors and Instruments” workshop in Toulouse to be held on November 28, too features a nice agenda:

• UV Detector Development at Teledyne-e2v
  P. Jerram, Teledyne-E2V
• Space-grade 3Kx3K Backside Illuminated CMOS Image Sensor for EUV Observation of the Sun
  S.Gissot, B. Giordanengo, A. BenMoussa, Royal Observatory of Belgium; G. Meynants, M. Koch, AMS CMOSIS; U. Schühle, Max Planck Institut; A. Gottwald, C. Laubis, U. Kroth, F. Scholze, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesansalt
• Classical Frontside Illuminated CMOS and CCD Image Sensors are Suitable for Visible Light Imaging
  D.Van Aken, and B. Dierickx, Caeleste
• Spatial Resolution and Noise Characteristics of Intensified Active Pixel Sensor Cameras for Vacuum Ultraviolet Imaging
  L. Teriaca, U. Schuehle, R. Aznar Cuadrado, K. Heerlein, M. Uslenghi, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
• Photonis Ultraviolet Detectors
  E. Kernen, Photonis
• The FUV Detector for the WSO-UV Field Camera Unit
  L. Diez, SENER; A. I. Gómez de Castro, UCM
• Compact and Lightweight MCP Detector Development for UV Space Missions
  L. Conti, J. Barnstedt, L. Hanke, C. Kalkuhl, N. Kappelmann, T. Rauch, B. Stelzer, K. Werner, IAAT Universität Tübingen; H.-R. Elsener, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology; K. Meyer, D. M. Schaadt, Institute of Energy Research and Physical Technologies, Clausthal University of Technology
• The New Oxide Paradigm for Solid State Ultraviolet Photodetectors
  D. J. Rogers, P. Bove, V.E. Sandana, F.H. Teherani, Nanovation; L. Dame, M. Meftah, J.F. Mariscal, CNRS LATMOS; M. Razeghi, R. McClintock, Centre for Quantum Devices ECE department; E. Frisch, S. Harel, Ofil Systems
• What is New about Nitrides for UV Detection one Decade Years after the Last Studies in Europe?
  J.-L. Reverchon, III-V Lab; J.-Y. Duboz, CNRS-CRHEA
• AlGaN Photodetectors for the Ultraviolet Regime
  R. Rehm, R. Driad , L. Hahn, S. Leone, T. Passow, F. Rutz, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF
• 4H-SiC-based UV Photodiodes for Space Applications
  L. Ottaviani, O. Palais, IM2P3; M. Lazar, AMPERE; A. Lyoussi, CEA/DEN/CAD/DER/SPEx; E. Kalinina, A. Lebedev, IOFFE Institute
• The POLLUX UV spectropolarimeter for the LUVOIR mission project
  C. Neiner, LESIA; J.-C. Bouret; E. Muslimov, LAM; H. Ouslimani, TAS
• Ultra-violet polarimetry for Pollux
  M. Le Gal, C. Neiner, LESIA; A. López Ariste, CNRS IRAP; M. Pertenaisa DLR
• UV Space Instrumentation at CSL: from the IMAGE FUV Spectrographic Imager to POLLUX
  R. Desselle, S. Habraken, J. Loicq, Centre Spatial de Liège
• The Cosmic Evolution Through Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (CETUS) NASA Probe Mission Concept
  W. Danchi, L Purves, NASA GSFC; S. Heap, NASA GSFC Emerita R. Woodruff, Woodruff Consulting; A. Hull, Kendrick Aerospace Consulting LLC and Univ. New Mexico; S. Kendrick, Kendrick Aerospace Consulting LLC
• SUAVE: a disruptive far UV telescope for long lasting performances in Space
  L. Damé, M. Meftah, N. Rouanet, P. Gilbert, CNRS LATMOS; P. Etcheto, J. Berthon, CNES
• Space UV Lidars for Earth Observation: from Design to Flight Demonstration
  G. de Villèle, B. Corselle, J. Lochard, O. Saint-Pé, AIRBUS DS
• Sentinel-4 and -5: Monitoring Earth’s Environment in the UV from Low-Earth and from Geostationary Space Orbits
  H. Candeias, A. Haerter, S. Riedl, C. Keim, S. Weiss; R. Maurer, R. Greinacher, AIRBUS DS
• UV Instrument Development Activities for Space Weather Monitoring
  I. Biswas, Rhea System GmbH, ESA/ESOC
• CUTE CubeSat Mission
  S. A. Gopinathan, L. Fossati, Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences; K. France, B. Fleming, Arika Egan, Univ. of Colorado; J.-M. Desert, Univ. of Amsterdam; T. Koskinen, Univ. of Arizona; P. Petit, OMP; A. Vidotto, Trinity College Dublin
• High-Resolution FUV Spectroscopy in a Cubesat package
  M. Beasley, Southwest Research Institute; R. McEntaffer, Pennsylvania State University
• The Venus Spectrometry in UltraViolet (VeSUV) Instrument on-Board the ESA/M5 EnVision mission
  G. Guignan, N. Rouanet, E. Marcq, CNRS LATMOS
• ULTRASAT – a wide-angle UV space telescope to capture transients
  J. Topaz, E. Waxman, M. Soumagniac, E. Ofek, O. Lapid, O. Aharonson, A. Gal-Yann, N. Ganot, Weizmann Institute of Science, S. Ben-Ami, Harvard- Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics
• SOLAR/SOLSPEC UV spectrometer. Lessons learned from the 9-year SOLAR mission
  D. Bolsée, N. Pereira, G. Cessateur, IASB-BIRA; M. Meftah, L. Damé, S. Bekki, A. Irbah, A. Hauchecorne, LATMOS; D. Sluse, ULG
• Design and properties of the gratings of POLLUX, the UV high-resolution spectropolarimeter for LUVOIR
  E. Muslimov, J.-C. Bouret, LAM; C. Neiner, LESIA; H. Ouslimani, TAS
• Instrument model for POLLUX
  S. Lombardo LAM; the POLLUX consortium
• The computer-based simulator of the far UV detector implemented in the field Camera Unit on board the WSO-UV space telescope
  P. Marcos-Arenal, A. I Gómez de Castro, UCM

Melexis Announces 2nd Generation ToF Sensor

Melexis announces "a major upgrade to ToF technology for the automotive industry, its next-generation QVGA ToF sensor chipset and a forthcoming VGA ToF sensor."

The new ToF sensors are AEC-Q100 qualified and suitable for automotive applications including gesture recognition, driver monitoring and people/object detection. The new MLX75024 ToF QVGA sensor doubles the sensitivity of the previous generation while maintaining the same resolution and ambient light robustness. This allows it to operate in lower light levels or reduce the illumination power required by at least 30%. System efficiency is further enhanced by a 50% reduction in current consumption and the resulting lower heat generation allows the design of more compact cameras. A new selectable gain feature allows a trade-off between illumination power, accuracy and ambient light robustness. As a result of these, the SNR is two times better in low light conditions and distances greater than 1m. As an additional improvement, the sensor now integrates an on-chip temperature sensor, reducing system size and cost.

To support the latest MLX75024 QVGA ToF sensor, Melexis has developed the MLX75123BA ToF companion chip, which offers a three-fold improvement in front-end noise over its predecessor. The companion chip is used to configure parameters such as pixel gain, and now supports pixel binning to simplify hardware and software for lower resolution applications. Additionally, the MLX75123BA can support two MLX75024 sensors at the same time.

Melexis also has developed a new BSI VGA sensor. Initial sampling to automotive customers will start early 2019.