Parallel fluorescence photon timing module with monolithic SPAD array detector

Over the past few years there has been a growing interest in monolithic arrays of single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) for time resolved detection of faint ultrafast optical signals. SPADs implemented in CMOS-compatible planar technologies offer the typical advantages of microelectronic devices (small size, ruggedness, low voltage, low power, etc.). Furthermore, they have inherently higher photon detection efficiency than PMTs and are able to provide, beside sensitivities down to single-photons, very high acquisition speeds. They are in principle therefore ideal candidates for the development of new parallel systems analysis. The birth of novel techniques and diagnostic instruments in fact has led towards the parallelization of measurement systems and consequently to the development of monolithic arrays of detectors. Unfortunately, the implementation of a multidimensional system is a challenging task, because optical and electrical crosstalk between adjacent channels strongly affect the timing performances of the SPADs; for these reasons, only a few number of commercial solutions are available and their performances are not comparable to the best single channel ones. A new compact module based on a 8x1 high performance time resolved SPAD array with a new timing approach is here presented.