This Project Grant award, valued at $450,000.00, was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Directorate for Engineering (ENG, CFDA 47.041) program. The award supports research by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to develop single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) with enhanced avalanche confinement, which can improve the signal-to-noise ratio and resolution of single-photon sensors without compromising efficiency.
The key products and services provided under this award include:
- Establishing a scientific framework to explain avalanche confinement in SPADs through device physics modeling and development of silicon and silicon carbide SPAD prototypes.
- Integrating the silicon SPAD devices into standard CMOS microchips to demonstrate single-photon imaging capabilities for applications like fluorescence lifetime imaging for biological cell culture analysis.
- Exploring applications of avalanche-confined SPADs for random number generation and physically unclonable functions to advance hardware security.
This multi-year research program, running from January 2025 through December 2029, aims to develop a transformative paradigm for single-photon detection and imaging that can enable novel technologies in areas like quantum computing and biomedical analysis.
Generated 2/25/25, 4:02 AM