A CMOS 64×48 Single Photon Avalanche Diode Array with Event-Driven Readout

This paper presents a CMOS array of 64times48 pixels capable of detecting single photons with timing accuracies better than 80ps. Upon photon arrival, a digital pulse is generated and routed by an event-driven digital readout scheme to a specific location for further processing. This method allows non-sequential row-wise and simultaneous column-wise detection while preserving photon arrival timing information. The readout scheme is scalable and it is shown to have minimal impact on timing accuracy. Time-correlated fluorescence spectroscopy and optical rangefinders are among the target applications for this technology