Lunch Chat: SPAD arrays and cameras: a comparison with conventional image sensors and detectors
Tue, 16.09.2025, online
This talk will introduce single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) arrays and cameras, highlighting how they differ from conventional imaging and photon-counting technologies. We will review the state-of-the-art in SPAD devices and compare their performance with established detectors such as photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), EMCCD cameras, as well as modern sCMOS and qCMOS image sensors. The discussion will focus on their working principles and on when SPAD-based systems provide unique advantages versus when conventional solutions may be more appropriate, depending on the application.
Speaker:
Milo Wu, PhD, Business Development Manager PI Imaging
Date
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Time
12:00 - 12:45 (CEST)
Software
Zoom
Costs
free of charge
Registration only necessary once
This event series requires registration (see link above). We will send you the access information (Zoom-link and ID) by email after the registration. As the Zoom link remains the same every week, you do not need to register again for the following meetings.
For the application of SPAD cameras, why don’t we use an analog counter instead of a digital counter? For example, by using a charge-pumping circuit: each time an avalanche occurs and recovers, the capacitor is charged once, so that the peripheral circuitry would resemble that of a CIS.
ReplyDeleteThis has been done before and it will work. (For example, the now defunct Voxel Sensors FPA did this.) The downside is that you'd pay the ADC noise penalty and lose the low-light sensitivity benefits that the SPAD provided in the first place.
DeleteThere are many papers on SPADs with time-to-analog converters (TAC) that I believe describe what you mentioned
DeleteWhy to go back to the analog domain and reintroduce all the analog issues? This was tried in 2014 by works of Prof. Henderson and Perenzonni, but the idea never picked up.
ReplyDeleteI think it's possible, but it suffers significant nonlinearity. To overcome its nonlinearity, it requires complex circuitry. There's a presentation that implemented an analog counter using an in-pixel SPAD. (https://imagesensors.org/Past%20Workshops/2025%20Workshop/2025%20Presentations/R06.2_Kuijk_slides.pdf)
ReplyDeleteIt's possible, but it suffers significant nonlinearity. To overcome its nonlinearity, a complex circuitry is required. A simple analog counter is implemented using an in-pixel SPAD here:
ReplyDeletehttps://imagesensors.org/Past%20Workshops/2025%20Workshop/2025%20Presentations/R06.2_Kuijk_slides.pdf