A 124-dB Dynamic-Range SPAD Photon-Counting Image Sensor Using Subframe Sampling and Extrapolating Photon Count

Abstract

This article presents a 250-ft/s photon-counting image sensor with a dynamic range (DR) of 124 dB. A prototype of a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$160\times264$ </tex-math></inline-formula> single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD)-based photon-counting image sensor with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$12.24~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> pitch stacked pixels successfully realized global-shutter image capture with noiseless readout, motion artifact suppression, and no signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) dip over the DR. This result can be achieved by a subframe sampling and extrapolating architecture by decreasing the number of counter bits to 9 and reducing the power consumption by 1/100 with 10⁶ incident photons under high light intensity.