Photon Counting Imaging with an Electron-Bombarded Pixel Image Sensor

Liisa M Hirvonen; Klaus Suhling

doi:10.3390/s16050617

Photon Counting Imaging with an Electron-Bombarded Pixel Image Sensor

Liisa M Hirvonen, Klaus Suhling

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310 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Electron-bombarded pixel image sensors, where a single photoelectron is accelerated directly into a CCD or CMOS sensor, allow wide-field imaging at extremely low light levels as they are sensitive enough to detect single photons. This technology allows the detection of up to hundreds or thousands of photon events per frame, depending on the sensor size, and photon event centroiding can be employed to recover resolution lost in the detection process. Unlike photon events from electron-multiplying sensors, the photon events from electron-bombarded sensors have a narrow, acceleration-voltage-dependent pulse height distribution. Thus a gain voltage sweep during exposure in an electron-bombarded sensor could allow photon arrival time determination from the pulse height with sub-frame exposure time resolution. We give a brief overview of our work with electron-bombarded pixel image sensor technology and recent developments in this field for single photon counting imaging, and examples of some applications.

Original language	English
Journal	SENSORS
Volume	16
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/s16050617
Publication status	Published - 28 Apr 2016

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10.3390/s16050617Licence: CC BY

2016_Hirvonen_Sensors_EBreviewFinal published version, 1.08 MBLicence: CC BY

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Photon Counting Imaging with an Electron-Bombarded Pixel Image Sensor

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