SPAD and SPAD Arrays: Theory, Practice, and Applications

January 22, 2025
2:00 PM ET / 1:00 PM CT / 11:00 AM PT / 7:00 PM GMT

Duration: 1 hour
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Summary

Single photon avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) are an emerging photon-counting technology. Their 1D or 2D array form offers several advantages over traditional imaging with CCDs and CMOS. Most importantly, a pixel in a SPAD array can provide not only intensity information but also the arrival times of individual photons. Because of this unique capability, there is great interest in using SPADs and SPAD arrays in low-light applications requiring precise timing, such as time-of-flight lidar or fluorescence lifetime imaging.

The webinar begins with a discussion of the fundamentals of SPAD physics, followed by a comprehensive overview of possible SPAD pixel designs and architectures for 1D and 2D SPAD arrays. Topics such as dynamic range, noise, readout, quenching, and signal processing will be examined in this section. Subsequently, several applications utilizing SPADs or SPAD arrays will be reviewed, emphasizing the advantages of SPADs over more traditional detectors. The presentation concludes with an overview of the most recent developments in SPAD technologies by Hamamatsu and others.

Speakers

Slawomir S. Piatek, Ph.D
Technology Consultant
Hamamatsu Corporation

As a senior university lecturer of physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Slawomir S. Piatek, Ph.D., has been measuring the proper motions of nearby galaxies using images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. As a science consultant for Hamamatsu Corp. in New Jersey, Piatek has developed a photonics training program for engineers.

At Hamamatsu, he is also involved in popularizing the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) as a novel photodetector by writing and lecturing about it, and by experimenting with the device. He earned a doctorate in physics from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in 1994.

Eric Mesa
Marketing Engineer
Hamamatsu Corporation

Eric Mesa is a Marketing Engineer for Hamamatsu Corporation based in Bridgewater NJ. His present-day primary area of focus is SPAD technology & applications, with extensive experience also with broadband light source technologies, covering a wide range of applications in medical, industrial, and academic research. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University in 2015 and has been part of Hamamatsu since September of 2017.

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SPAD and SPAD Arrays: Theory, Practice, and Applications

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