Optical Image Sensors: Abbe's Limit and SPAD Metrology

This lecture covers the fundamental concepts of optical image sensors, including Abbe's Limit, sub-resolution pixels, microlenses, vignetting, and single-photon detectors. It delves into the Gigavision approach for sub-resolution pixels, Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, and practical characterization of microlenses. The lecture also explores single-photon detectors such as PMTs, MCPs, EMCCDs, APDs, GAPDs, and SiPMs, along with their metrology. It discusses SPAD metrology aspects like dark counts, photon detection probability, fill factor, PDE, jitter, TCSPC, CTR/CRT, DCR suppression, afterpulsing, and crosstalk. The dynamic range of SPADs, active vs. passive recharge, and their impact on count rate and photon rate are also addressed.