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Updated: May 28, 2026
High-Throughput Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence and Direct Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy Using a Photonic Chip
Published on: November 16, 2019
Design and Characterization of a Prototype Pixel Readout Chip for Synchrotron Single Photon-Counting Detectors with
Shijie Lu1,2, Yifan Jiang3,4, Tao Sun1
1State Key Laboratory of Materials for Integrated Circuits, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 865 Changning Road, Shanghai 200050, China.
Abstract:
As synchrotron radiation sources (SRSs) expand to cover a broader energy range, the demand for hybrid detectors with improved spatial and energy resolution is increasing. This paper presents the design and characterization of a prototype pixel readout ASIC featuring a small pixel size and low noise, developed for low energy soft X-ray applications. This chip adopts the single photon-counting (SPC) approach and each pixel consists of a front-end amplifier, a discriminator, a charge injection circuitry and a pair of 15-bit counters with associated logic. Fabricated in a 130 nm CMOS process, the chip integrates a 2 × 16 pixel matrix with a 50 µm ×50 µm pixel size. Measurement results indicate the maximum pixel equivalent noise charge (ENC) across the matrix is 20 e-rms without sensor attached. The results validate that the chip design has the potential to deliver a low-energy resolution for soft X-ray applications.
