Angle sensitive single photon avalanche diode

Abstract

An ideal light sensor would provide exact information on intensity, timing, location, and angle of incoming photons. Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) provide such desired high (single photon) sensitivity with precise time information and can be implemented at a pixel-scale to form an array to extract spatial information. Furthermore, recent work has demonstrated photodiode-based structures (combined with micro-lenses or diffraction gratings) that are capable of encoding both spatial and angular information of incident light. In this letter, we describe the implementation of such a grating structure on SPADs to realize a pixel-scale angle-sensitive single photon avalanche diode (A-SPAD) built in a standard CMOS process. While the underlying SPAD structure provides high sensitivity, the time information of the two layers of diffraction gratings above offers angle-sensitivity. Such a unique combination of SPAD and diffraction gratings expands the sensing dimensions to pave a path towards lens-less 3-D imaging and light-field time-of-flight imaging.