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  4. High-efficiency fill factor recovery using refractive microlens arrays imprinted on 0.5–256 kpixel front-side illuminated SPAD imagers
 
conference paper

High-efficiency fill factor recovery using refractive microlens arrays imprinted on 0.5–256 kpixel front-side illuminated SPAD imagers

Bruschini, Claudio  
•
Antolovic, Ivan Michel  
•
Zanella, Frédéric  
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von Freymann, Georg
•
Blasco, Eva
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March 15, 2023
Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics XVI
SPIE OPTO 2023

Silicon-based single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) implemented in front-side illuminated arrays and imagers have often suffered from fill factor limitations. The corresponding reduced sensitivity can be sometimes traded off with longer acquisition times thanks to SPAD’s noiseless read-out. The use of SPADs can however be critically affected in many applications, especially when photon-starved, or when several photons need to be detected in coincidence. The fill factor loss can be recovered by employing microlens arrays, which are difficult to build with relatively large pitch (> 10 μm) and low native SPAD fill factor (as low as 10%). To address these challenges, we have developed several generations of refractive microlenses by photoresist reflow used to fabricate molds. These structures were used to imprint UV-curable hybrid polymer microlenses on SPAD arrays. Replications were successfully carried out on large SPAD arrays with very thin residual layers (~10 μm), as required for higher numerical aperture (NA > 0.25). Replications were also carried out for the first time in a multi-chip operation regime at the wafer reticle level. By optimizing the lens sag and residual layer thickness, concentration factors (CFs) within 15-20% of the theoretical maxima were obtained for the smaller arrays (32×32 and 512×1). The spectral response was flat above 400 nm. CF values up to 4.2 with good uniformity were measured on large 512×512 arrays with 16 μm pixel pitch and a native fill factor of 10.5%. This result was confirmed by simulations when using the actual measured lens shape. We thus demonstrated good spectral and spatial uniformity and high CF, while moving to higher NAs and larger sensor sizes with respect to previous work.

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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1117/12.2652962
Author(s)
Bruschini, Claudio  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Antolovic, Ivan Michel  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Zanella, Frédéric  

Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (Switzerland)

Ulku, Arin C.

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Lindner, Scott  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Kalyanov, Alexander L.

University of Zurich

Milanese, Tommaso  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Bernasconi, Ermanno  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Pesic, Vladimir  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Charbon, Edoardo  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Editors
von Freymann, Georg
•
Blasco, Eva
•
Chanda, Debashis
Date Issued

2023-03-15

Publisher

SPIE

Published in
Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics XVI
ISBN of the book

9781510659711

9781510659728

Series title/Series vol.

Proceedings of SPIE; 12433

ISSN (of the series)

0277-786X

1996-756X

Article Number

124330K

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
AQUA  
Event nameEvent acronymEvent placeEvent date
SPIE OPTO 2023

San Francisco, California, United States

2023-01-28 - 2023-02-03

Available on Infoscience
June 4, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/251054
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