A high-throughput time-resolved mini-silicon photomultiplier with embedded fluorescence lifetime estimation in 0.13um CMOS
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 14:14authored byDavid Tyndall, Bruce R Rae, David Day-Uei Li, Jochen Arlt, Abigail Johnstone, Justin A Richardson, Robert K Henderson
We describe a miniaturized, high-throughput, time-resolved fluorescence lifetime sensor implemented in a 0.13 um CMOS process, combining single photon detection, mul- tiple channel timing and embedded pre-processing of fluorescence lifetime estimations on a single device. Detection is achieved using an array of single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) arranged in a digital silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) architecture with 400 ps output pulses and a 10% fill-factor. An array of time-to-digital converters (TDCs) with ? ?55 ps resolution records up to 8 photon events during each excitation period. Data from the TDC array is then processed using a centre-of-mass method (CMM) pre-cal- culation to produce fluorescence lifetime estimations in real-time. The sensor is believed to be the first reported implementation of embedded fluorescence lifetime estimation. The system is demon- strated in a practical laboratory environment with measurements of a variety of fluorescent dyes with different single exponential lifetimes, successfully showing the sensor’s ability to overcome the classic pile-up limitation of time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) by over an order of magnitude.
History
Publication status
Published
Journal
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
ISSN
1932-4545
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)