Edoardo Charbon received the Diploma from ETH Zurich, the M.S. from UCSD, and the Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in 1988, 1991, and1995, respectively. He was with Cadence Design Systems from 1995 to 2000 and with Canesta Inc., as the Chief Architect, from 2000 to 2002. Since then he has been with the faculty of EPFL, where he is full professor. From 2008 to 2016 he was with Delft University of Technology’s as Chair of VLSI design. He has been the driving force behind the creation of deep-submicron CMOS SPAD technology, which is mass-produced since 2015, and cryo-CMOS circuits and systems for quantum computing. He has co-authored over 400 papers and two books, and he holds 24 patents. Dr. Charbon is a distinguished visiting scholar of the W. M. Keck Institute for Space at Caltech, a fellow of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Photonics Society, and a fellow of the IEEE.

Large-format SPAD image sensors for biomedical and HEP applications

CMOS SPAD image sensors have reached 1Mpixel in 2020 after two decades of evolution. The core peculiarity of SPADs is an excellent timing resolution, at the center of the success of these sensors in time-resolved imaging. Applications have literally exploded, with 3D-stacking enabling deep-learning processors and complex processing in situ, hence reducing power consumption. Another recent trend is the use of SPADs in quantum imaging and quanta burst photography, that are notoriously computationally intensive. Recent examples include particle sensing in HEP experiments, FLIM/FRET, and various super-resolution microscopy styles. In this review, we will go over all these trends and discuss the newest results achieved with advanced technologies.