The Skipper-in-CMOS image sensor integrates the non-destructive readout capability of Skipper Charge Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) with the high conversion gain of a pinned photodiode in a CMOS imaging process, while taking advantage of in-pixel signal processing. This allows both single photon counting as well as high frame rate readout through highly parallel processing. The first results obtained from a 15 x 15 um^2 pixel cell of a Skipper-in-CMOS sensor fabricated in Tower Semiconductor's commercial 180 nm CMOS Image Sensor process are presented. Measurements confirm the expected reduction of the readout noise with the number of samples down to deep sub-electron noise of 0.15rms e-, demonstrating the charge transfer operation from the pinned photodiode and the single photon counting operation when the sensor is exposed to light. The article also discusses new testing strategies employed for its operation and characterization.
@article{arxiv.2402.12516,
title = {Skipper-in-CMOS: Non-Destructive Readout with Sub-Electron Noise Performance for Pixel Detectors},
author = {Agustin J. Lapi and Miguel Sofo-Haro and Benjamin C. Parpillon and Adi Birman and Guillermo Fernandez-Moroni and Lorenzo Rota and Fabricio Alcalde Bessia and Aseem Gupta and Claudio Chavez Blanco and Fernando Chierchie and Julie Segal and Christopher J. Kenney and Angelo Dragone and Shaorui Li and Davide Braga and Amos Fenigstein and Juan Estrada and Farah Fahim},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.12516},
year = {2024}
}