用于单光子TOF测量的时间-幅度变换器  

A Compact Time-to-Amplitude Converter for Single-Photon Time-of-Flight Measurement

作　　者：马治强 徐跃 朱思慧 吴仲 MA Zhiqiang;XU Yue;ZHU Sihui;WU Zhong(College of Elec.and Optical Engineer.&College of Microelec.,Nanjing Univ.of Posts and Telecommun.,Nanjing 210023,P.R.China;National and Local Joint Engineer.Lab.of RF Integration&Micro-Assembly Technology,Nanjing 210023,P.R.China)

机构地区：[1]南京邮电大学电子与光学工程学院、微电子学院,南京210023 [2]射频集成与微组装技术国家地方联合工程实验室,南京210023

出　　处：《微电子学》2021年第4期546-551,共6页Microelectronics

基　　金：国家自然科学基金资助项目(61571235);江苏省重点研发-社会发展资助项目(BE2019741);江苏省自然科学基金资助项目(BK20181390)。

摘　　要：基于新型共源共栅电流源的积分方法,设计了一种用于单光子飞行时间(TOF)测量的时间-幅度变换器(TAC)。该方法有效简化了TAC电路结构,减小了TAC占用面积,显著提高了TOF的满量程范围(FSR)。采用0.18μm标准CMOS工艺设计。集成TAC的单光子探测器像素单元的填充因子可达到26.8%。后仿真结果表明,该TAC在120 ns的FSR内具有230 ps的定时分辨率,微分非线性(DNL)低于0.05 LSB,积分非线性(INL)低于1.1 LSB。蒙特卡洛仿真表明,512个TAC像素间的不均匀性低于0.5%。该TAC非常适用于高密度时间相关的单光子计数(TCSPC)探测器阵列。A compact time-to-amplitude converter(TAC) for single-photon time-of-flight(TOF) measurement was designed. An innovative current integral method based on Wilson current source was proposed to effectively reduce the circuit occupied area and to significantly enhance the time full-scale range(FSR) of the TOF measurement. Designed in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology, the filling factor(FF) of 26.8% was achieved through a compact TAC structure for a single-photon avalanche diode(SPAD) pixel. The post-layout simulation results further revealed that the TAC featured 230 ps timing resolution in a 120 ns FSR. Furthermore, the TAC was characterized by a low differential nonlinearity(DNL) of 0.05 LSB and a low integral nonlinearity(INL) of 1.1 LSB in the whole detectable time range. Additionally, a low nonuniformity below 0.5 % was obtained across 512 in-pixel TACs by Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed TAC was very suitable for high-density time-correlated single-photon counting(TCSPC) detectors.

关 键 词：单光子雪崩二极管 飞行时间 时间幅度转换器 填充因子 非线性 

分 类 号：TN432[电子电信—微电子学与固体电子学]