Sensors | |
Advantages and Limitations of Fluorescence Lifetime Measurements Using Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) Array Detector: A Comprehensive Theoretical and Experimental Study | |
Alexander Netaev1  Karsten Seidl1  Nicolas Schierbaum1  | |
[1] Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems, 47057 Duisburg, Germany; | |
关键词: SPAD; fluorescence lifetime; pile-up; Monte Carlo; detector array; | |
DOI : 10.3390/s22103822 | |
来源: DOAJ |
【 摘 要 】
Fast fluorescence lifetime (FL) determination is a major factor for studying dynamic processes. To achieve a required precision and accuracy a certain number of photon counts must be detected. FL methods based on single-photon counting have strongly limited count rates because of the detector’s pile-up issue and are suffering from long measurement times in the order of tens of seconds. Here, we present an experimental and Monte Carlo simulation-based study of how this limitation can be overcome using array detectors based on single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs). We investigated the maximum count rate per pixel to determine FL with a certain precision and accuracy before pile-up occurs. Based on that, we derived an analytical expression to calculate the total measurement time which is proportional to the FL and inversely proportional to the number of pixels. However, a higher number of pixels drastically increases data rate. This can be counteracted by lowering the time resolution. We found that even with a time resolution of four times the FL, an accuracy of 10% can be achieved. Taken all together, FLs between 10 ns and 3 ns can be determined with a 300-pixel SPAD array detector with a measurement time and data rate less than 1 µs and 700 Mbit/s, respectively. This shows the enormous potential of SPAD array detector for high-speed applications requiring continuous data read out.
【 授权许可】
Unknown