The growing demand for 3D time of flight (ToF) imaging LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems, based on CMOS Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM), poses an engineering and scientific challenge. SiPM, which is composed of a mosaic array of passive quenched SPADs (single photon avalanche diode in Geiger Mode) combined in parallel, is the building block of 3D-optical radars. It is the leading solid- state sensor in systems requiring simultaneously photon counting as well as photon timing. An open essential design parameter is the required number of sub-pixels for adequate detection of a packet of m photons, considering that each sub-pixel, composed of a single SPAD, can detect only the first photon. This study evaluates this design parameter based on a stochastic approach, where the random number of incident photons as well as the detection probability of each SPAD is taken into consideration.

Date Published: 13 May 2019
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 10978, Advanced Photon Counting Techniques XIII, 109780H (13 May 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2520490

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10978:
Advanced Photon Counting Techniques XIII
Mark A. Itzler; Joshua C. Bienfang; K. Alex McIntosh, Editor(s)