Abstract
This article reviews MIT Lincoln Laboratory's work over the past 20 years to develop photon-sensitive image sensors based on arrays of silicon Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes. Integration of these detectors to all-digital CMOS readout circuits enable exquisitely sensitive solid-state imagers for lidar, wavefront sensing, and passive imaging.
Highlights
The MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Lexington, MA, USA) has been a world leader in the development of specialized high-performance charge-coupled-device imagers (CCDs) [1]
While the primary focus of this article is silicon Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (GMAPDs) [2], Lincoln Laboratory has developed GMAPD arrays based on compound semiconductors sensitive at wavelengths ranging from 1.06 μm [3] to the mid-wave infrared [4]
A number of investigators have demonstrated front-illuminated silicon GMAPD arrays using a monolithic device structure in which the photodiode is incorporated into the CMOS readout circuit monolithic device structure in which the photodiode is incorporated into the CMOS readout circuit using a standard CMOS foundry process [10]
Summary
The MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Lexington, MA, USA) has been a world leader in the development of specialized high-performance charge-coupled-device imagers (CCDs) [1]. The faster the readout rate, the more severe the readout noise penalty This sensitivity limitation becomes important in photon-starved applications, such as night vision or high-temporal-resolution imaging. Interest in such scenarios lead to Lincoln’s development of photon-counting image sensors, primarily based on arrays of custom-fabricated Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (GMAPDs) integrated with all-digital CMOS readout circuits. Because digitization occurs within the pixel, there is no analog circuitry in the readout path, and no analog circuit noise This means that there is no readout noise penalty for operating at high frame rates, using short integration times, or dividing the incoming light into multiple spectral or spatial channels. A second advantage of a photon-counting image sensor is that it facilitates in-pixel time-to-digital conversion. Crosstalk is mediated by hot-carrier light emission by the avalanche process and is discussed at the end of Section 4
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