A Current-Mode Photon Counting Circuit for Long- Range LiDAR Applications

Authors

Sachin P. Namboodiri, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Gonzalo Arteaga, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
James Skelly, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Francisco Mata-carlos, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Angsuman Roy, Freedom Photonics, LLC
R. Jacob Baker, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

9-2-2020

Publication Title

2020 IEEE 63rd International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS)

First page number:

1

Last page number:

4

Abstract

Photon counting techniques are becoming more critical in fields such as LiDAR, high energy physics (HEP) and positron emission tomography (PET). For space-based aerosol-cloud-ocean (ACO) LIDAR, the total aggregate photon flux signal has a very high dynamic range from a single-photon up to giga-photons per second for a single channel. A current-mode front-end can accommodate this counting dynamic range over a wide range of input signal current pulse amplitudes. A multi-channel current-mode photon counting circuit was designed, simulated, and fabricated in a standard 180 nm SiGe BiCMOS process. This photon counting circuit achieved a maximum count rate of 500 MHz with a 300 ps FWHM pulse width at amplitudes of 5μA to 1.25 mA.

Keywords

Readout Integrated Circuit (ROIC); Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM); Avalanche Photodiode (APD); Photon Counting; LiDAR; Photomultiplier Tube (PMT)

Disciplines

Electrical and Computer Engineering | Electromagnetics and Photonics | Engineering

Language

English

Repository Citation

Namboodiri, S. P., Arteaga, G., Skelly, J., Mata-carlos, F., Roy, A., Baker, R. J. (2020). A Current-Mode Photon Counting Circuit for Long- Range LiDAR Applications. 2020 IEEE 63rd International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS) 1-4.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MWSCAS48704.2020.9184584