Gianluca Boso

CMOS SPADs with up to 500 μm diameter and 55% detection efficiency at 420 nm

Many demanding applications require single-photon detectors with very large active area, very low noise, high detection efficiency, and precise time response. Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) provide all the advantages of solid-state devices, but in many applications other single-photon detectors, like photomultiplier tubes, have been preferred so far due to their larger active area. We developed silicon SPADs with active area diameters as large as 500 μm in a fully standard CMOS process. The 500 μm SPAD exhibits 55% peak photon detection efficiency at 420 nm, 8 kcps of dark counting rate at 0°C, and high uniformity of the sensitivity in the active area. These devices can be used with on-chip integrated quenching circuitry, which reduces the afterpulsing probability, or with external circuits to achieve even better photon-timing performances, as good as 92 ps FWHM for a 100 μm diameter SPAD. Owing to the state-of-the-art performance, not only compared to CMOS SPADs but also SPADs developed in custom technologies, very high uniformity and low crosstalk probability, these CMOS SPADs can be successfully employed in detector arrays and single-chip imagers for single-photon counting and timing applications.

Towards next-generation time-domain diffuse optics for extreme depth penetration and sensitivity.

Light is a powerful tool to non-invasively probe highly scattering media for clinical applications ranging from oncology to neurology, but also for molecular imaging, and quality assessment of food, wood and pharmaceuticals. Here we show that, for a paradigmatic case of diffuse optical imaging, ideal yet realistic time-domain systems yield more than 2-fold higher depth penetration and many decades higher contrast as compared to ideal continuous-wave systems, by adopting a dense source-detector distribution with picosecond time-gating. Towards this aim, we demonstrate the first building block made of a source-detector pair directly embedded into the probe based on a pulsed Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) to allow parallelization for dense coverage, a Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) to maximize light harvesting, and a Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) to demonstrate the time-gating capability on the basic SiPM element. This paves the way to a dramatic advancement in terms of increased performances, new high impact applications, and availability of devices with orders of magnitude reduction in size and cost for widespread use, including quantitative wearable imaging.

Time-resolved diffuse optical tomography using fast-gated single-photon avalanche diodes

We present the first experimental results of reflectance Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) performed with a fast-gated single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) coupled to a time-correlated single-photon counting system. The Mellin-Laplace transform was employed to process time-resolved data. We compare the performances of the SPAD operated in the gated mode vs. the non-gated mode for the detection and localization of an absorbing inclusion deeply embedded in a turbid medium for 5 and 15 mm interfiber distances. We demonstrate that, for a given acquisition time, the gated mode enables the detection and better localization of deeper absorbing inclusions than the non-gated mode. These results obtained on phantoms demonstrate the efficacy of time-resolved DOT at small interfiber distances. By achieving depth sensitivity with limited acquisition times, the gated mode increases the relevance of reflectance DOT at small interfiber distance for clinical applications.

Non-contact in vivo diffuse optical imaging using a time-gated scanning system

We report on the design and first in vivo tests of a novel non-contact scanning imaging system for time-domain near-infrared spectroscopy. Our system is based on a null source-detector separation approach and utilizes polarization-selective detection and a fast-gated single-photon avalanche diode to record late photons only. The in-vivo tests included the recording of hemodynamics during arm occlusion and two brain activation tasks. Localized and non-localized changes in oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin concentration were detected for motor and cognitive tasks, respectively. The tests demonstrate the feasibility of non-contact imaging of absorption changes in deeper tissues.

Fast silicon photomultiplier improves signal harvesting and reduces complexity in time-domain diffuse optics

We present a proof of concept prototype of a time-domain diffuse optics probe exploiting a fast Silicon PhotoMultiplier (SiPM), featuring a timing resolution better than 80 ps, a fast tail with just 90 ps decay time-constant and a wide active area of 1 mm2. The detector is hosted into the probe and used in direct contact with the sample under investigation, thus providing high harvesting efficiency by exploiting the whole SiPM numerical aperture and also reducing complexity by avoiding the use of cumbersome fiber bundles. Our tests also demonstrate high accuracy and linearity in retrieving the optical properties and suitable contrast and depth sensitivity for detecting localized inhomogeneities. In addition to a strong improvement in both instrumentation cost and size with respect to legacy solutions, the setup performances are comparable to those of state-of-the-art time-domain instrumentation, thus opening a new way to compact, low-cost and high-performance time-resolved devices for diffuse optical imaging and spectroscopy.

Spatial resolution in depth for time-resolved diffuse optical tomography using short source-detector separations.

Diffuse optical tomography for medical applications can require probes with small dimensions involving short source-detector separations. Even though this configuration is seen at first as a constraint due to the challenge of depth sensitivity, we show here that it can potentially be an asset for spatial resolution in depth. By comparing two fiber optic probes on a test object, we first show with simulations that short source-detector separations improve the spatial resolution down to a limit depth. We then confirm these results in an experimental study with a state-of-the-art setup involving a fast-gated single-photon avalanche diode allowing maximum depth sensitivity. We conclude that short source-detector separations are an option to consider for the design of probes so as to improve image quality for diffuse optical tomography in reflectance.

Time-gated single-photon detection module with 110 ps transition time and up to 80 MHz repetition rate

We present the design and characterization of a complete single-photon counting module capable of time-gating a silicon single-photon avalanche diode with ON and OFF transition times down to 110 ps, at repetition rates up to 80 MHz. Thanks to this sharp temporal filtering of incoming photons, it is possible to reject undesired strong light pulses preceding (or following) the signal of interest, allowing to increase the dynamic range of optical acquisitions up to 7 decades. A complete experimental characterization of the module highlights its very flat temporal response, with a time resolution of the order of 30 ps. The instrument is fully user-configurable via a PC interface and can be easily integrated in any optical setup, thanks to its small and compact form factor.

InGaAs/InP Single-Photon Detector Gated at 1.3 GHz With 1.5% Afterpulsing

We demonstrate a single-photon detector based on InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) sinusoidal-gated at 1.3 GHz with very low afterpulsing (about 1.5%), high dynamic range (maximum count rate is 650 Mcount/s), high photon detection efficiency (>30% at 1550 nm), low noise (per-gate dark count rate is 2.2 × 10-5), and low timing jitter (<;70 ps full-width at half-maximum). The SPAD is paired with a “dummy” structure that is biased in antiphase. The sinusoidal gating signals are cancelled by means of a common-cathode configuration and by adjusting the relative amplitude and phase of the signals biasing the two arms. This configuration allows us to adjust the gating frequency from 1 to 1.4 GHz and can be operated also in the so-called gate-free mode, with the gate sine-wave unlocked with respect to the light stimulus, resulting in a free-running equivalent operation of the InGaAs/InP SPAD with about 4% average photon detection efficiency at 1550 nm.

Diffuse optics using a dual window fast-gated counter

In this paper we demonstrate the advantages of a fast-gated counter in achieving high count-rate and reducing costs of timing equipment in a time-resolved diffuse optical spectroscopy setup. We experimentally prove the equivalence between the fast-gated counter we developed and a traditional time-correlated single-photon counting setup in terms of depth sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, we show the suitability of this device for bilayer analysis and to estimate the absorption coefficient of homogeneous diffusing media. Finally, we present a proof-of-principle arterial occlusion measurement on a healthy volunteer to validate the proposed approach in a real application. Fast-gated counters can dramatically reduce both costs and complexity in time-resolved multichannel systems, while achieving high count-rate, thus offering a great advantage in applications like brain and muscle functional imaging.

Gate-Free InGaAs/InP Single-Photon Detector Working at Up to 100 Mcount/s

Recently, there has been considerable effort to develop photon-counting detectors for the near-infrared wavelength range, but the main limitation is to have a practical detector with both high count rates and low noise. Here, we show a novel technique to operate InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) in a free-running equivalent mode at high count rate up to 100 Mcount/s. The photodetector is enabled with a 915-MHz sinusoidal gate signal that is kept unlocked with respect to the light stimulus, resulting in a free-running equivalent operation of the SPAD, with an afterpulsing probability below 0.3%, a photon detection efficiency value of 3% at 1550 nm, a temporal resolution of 150 ps, and a dark count rate below 2000 count/s. Such gate-free approach can be used to measure, at high count rate, signals in continuous wave or with slow time decays, where standard gated detectors would not be suitable.