Abstract
This paper presents a full parallel event driven readout method which is implemented in an area array single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) image sensor for high-speed fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). The sensor only records and reads out effective time and position information by adopting full parallel event driven readout method, aiming at reducing the amount of data. The image sensor includes four 8 × 8 pixel arrays. In each array, four time-to-digital converters (TDCs) are used to quantize the time of photons’ arrival, and two address record modules are used to record the column and row information. In this work, Monte Carlo simulations were performed in Matlab in terms of the pile-up effect induced by the readout method. The sensor’s resolution is 16 × 16. The time resolution of TDCs is 97.6 ps and the quantization range is 100 ns. The readout frame rate is 10 Mfps, and the maximum imaging frame rate is 100 fps. The chip’s output bandwidth is 720 MHz with an average power of 15 mW. The lifetime resolvability range is 5–20 ns, and the average error of estimated fluorescence lifetimes is below 1% by employing CMM to estimate lifetimes.
Highlights
Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is a rather new and effective tool that can be used to analyze complex biological samples, either at the microscopic or macroscopic level [1,2]
5–20 ns, and the average error of estimated fluorescence lifetimes is below 1% by employing Center-of-Mass Method (CMM) to estimate lifetimes
We propose an area array 16 ˆ 16 single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) FLIM image sensor, which adopts full parallel event driven readout method by recording the column information, the row information and time information individually
Summary
Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is a rather new and effective tool that can be used to analyze complex biological samples, either at the microscopic or macroscopic level [1,2]. TCSPC allows for high accuracy in measuring lifetime and it is the most photon-efficient technique. The integration of SPADs into standard CMOS process could result in significant system capability of highly parallel single photon detection [11]. In addition to the time information, recording precise location is of importance to the SPAD chip applied in FLIM, and it is hard to implement event driven readout based on area array image sensors [20]. Henderson et al proposed several high-throughput time-resolved mini-silicon photomultipliers based on the event driven readout technique [21]. We propose an area array 16 ˆ 16 SPAD FLIM image sensor, which adopts full parallel event driven readout method by recording the column information, the row information and time information individually.
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