title: Single Photon Counting Performance and Noise Analysis of CMOS SPAD-Based Image Sensors.
abstract: SPAD-based solid state CMOS image sensors utilising analogue integrators have attained deep sub-electron read noise (DSERN) permitting single photon counting (SPC) imaging. A new method is proposed to determine the read noise in DSERN image sensors by evaluating the peak separation and width (PSW) of single photon peaks in a photon counting histogram (PCH). The technique is used to identify and analyse cumulative noise in analogue integrating SPC SPAD-based pixels. The DSERN of our SPAD image sensor is exploited to confirm recent multi-photon threshold quanta image sensor (QIS) theory. Finally, various single and multiple photon spatio-temporal oversampling techniques are reviewed.
authors.affiliation: STMicroelectronics Imaging Division, Pinkhill, Edinburgh EH12 7BF, UK. neale.dutton@st.com.
authors.forename: Neale A W
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Dutton
authors.affiliation: CMOS Sensors and Systems Group, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK. Istvan.Gyongy@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Istvan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gyongy
authors.affiliation: CMOS Sensors and Systems Group, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK. l.parmesan@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Parmesan
authors.affiliation: CMOS Sensors and Systems Group, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK. robert.henderson@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robert K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Henderson
keywords: CIS; CMOS image sensor; QIS; SPAD; SPC; quanta image sensor; single photon avalanche diode; single photon counting; spatio-temporal oversampling