SBIR Phase I: Room Temperature Photon Counting Quanta Image Sensor Camera for Scientific Imaging Applications

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是一款革命性的高速、高分辨率和极高灵敏度的相机。这款广达图像传感器(QIS)相机将是市场上唯一一款具有室温光子计数能力的紧凑型互补金属氧化物半导体(CMOS)相机。这款相机可用于科学和医学成像应用，在这些应用中，高灵敏度极其重要，而当前最先进的相机技术无法满足消费者的需求，客户迫切需要更好的相机解决方案。QIS是一种平台成像技术，可广泛应用于汽车、增强现实和虚拟现实、安防和监控等要求高灵敏度、高分辨率和高速的成像应用中。此外，由于QIS技术与主流的CMOS生产线兼容，它有可能通过大批量生产主导图像传感器和相机市场。预计从2015年到2021年，图像传感器市场将以10.4%的年增长率增长，到2021年达到188亿美元的市场价值。拟议的项目解决了最先进的科学EMCCD相机的主要缺点，如高噪声(外部冷却时约1个电子)、非线性响应和不可预测的读出增益、低分辨率、低速度、大尺寸和极高的功耗。在本项目中，一块自制的QIS测试芯片将被实现在一台100万像素的QIS相机原型上，该相机可以工作在1000帧/S，整个相机的功耗将低于1W。平均噪声约为0.21个电子，在室温下解锁真正的光子数分辨，准确率约为99%。模块化紧凑型QIS相机将包含一些外围数字IC芯片、电源、FPGA、USB 3接口等。相机模块中将实现QIS图像处理算法，以从相机接收的二进制比特形成图像并输出。将进行先进的工业和商业标准测试和表征，以全面测量QIS原型相机的性能。此外，该相机将接受阿尔法客户的测试，并将收到他们的反馈。为了改进开发，研究成果将应用于未来SBIR计划第二阶段的QIS相机。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be a revolutionary, high-speed, high-resolution and extremely high-sensitivity camera. This Quanta Image Sensor (QIS) camera will be the only compact complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) camera in the market with photon counting capability at room temperature. This camera can be used in scientific and medical imaging applications where high sensitivity is extremely important and the current state-of-the-art camera technologies cannot satisfy the needs of the consumers, and customers are desperately seeking a better camera solution. The QIS is a platform imaging technology and can be used in a broad range of imaging applications, such as automotive, augmented-reality & virtual-reality, security & surveillance, etc., where high-sensitivity, high-resolution and high-speed are required. Moreover, since the QIS technology is compatible with the mainstream CMOS fabrication lines, it has the potential to dominate the image sensor and camera market by high-volume production. The image sensor market is expected to expand at an annual growth rate of 10.4% from 2015 to 2021, reaching $18.8 billion market value by 2021.The proposed project addresses the major drawbacks of the state-of-the-art scientific EMCCD cameras, such as high noise (around 1 electron with external cooling), nonlinear response and unpredictable readout gain, low-resolution, low-speed, massive size and extremely high power consumption. In this project, a manufactured QIS test chip will be implemented into a 1 megapixel prototype QIS camera which can function at 1000 frames/s and the whole camera power consumption will be less than a Watt. The average noise will be around 0.21 electrons that unlocks the true photon-number-resolving at room temperature with about 99% accuracy. The modular compact QIS camera will contain some peripheral digital IC chips, power supplies, FPGA, USB 3 interface, etc. A QIS image processing algorithm will be implemented in the camera module to form and output images from the binary bits received from the imager. Advanced industrial and commercial standard tests and characterizations will be performed to comprehensively measure the performance of the prototype QIS camera. Also, the camera will be tested by alpha-customers and their feedbacks will be received. In order to improve the development, the results will be applied in future QIS cameras in the Phase II of the SBIR program.