Photon event concurrent detection circuit and method for single-photon 3D lidar detector

Abstract

The invention discloses a photon event concurrent detection circuit and method for a single photon 3D laser radar detector. The detection circuit comprises four RS flip-flops, a judging circuit and atrigger / reset circuit, wherein the judging circuit consists of a mirror current source network and a voltage comparator; and the judging circuit converts the number of avalanche pulse signals into a signal whose voltage threshold is VA through the mirror current source network, and compares the signal with a set reference voltage signal Vref through the voltage comparator to realize the function of concurrent detection of photon events and suppressing of noise photons. The photon event concurrent detection circuit provided by the invention occupies a small chip layout area, effectively improves filling factors of the SPAD pixel unit, improves the degree of integration of the SPAD array detector, and has the advantages of low circuit complexity, complete compatibility of the manufacturing process with the CMOS process, low manufacturing cost, good performance consistency among the respective circuits, and high yield.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention provides a photon event concurrent detection circuit applied to a single-photon 3D lidar detector, belonging to the technical field of single-photon detection and 3D imaging. Background technique [0002] Due to its remarkable advantages such as high detection sensitivity, fast response speed, small area, low power consumption and full compatibility with CMOS processes, Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) has been used in laser ranging, fluorescence lifetime imaging, DNA Aspects such as sequencing and 3D imaging show broad application prospects. These application fields all require single photon detectors to have good ability to suppress noise. At present, there are mainly two methods for suppressing noise in single photon detectors: gating method and avalanche pulse detection. Although the gated quenching circuit can suppress the ambient photons and SPAD device dark counts within a certain time interval, it has the advantage of high c...

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Problems solved by technology

[0003] Purpose of the invention: In view of the problems of the existing photon event concurrent detection circuit with low ability to suppress environmental photon noise, small application range, and large circuit area, the present invention proposes a single photon detection circuit with strong background photon suppression ability, high integration, and wide application range. Photon event concurrent detection circuit and method for 3D lidar detector

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