Lightspin Technologies Inc — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: For a wide range of remote sensing applications, there is a critical need to develop imagi

Description

For a wide range of remote sensing applications, there is a critical need to develop imaging arrays that simultaneously achieve high spatial resolution, high sensitivity, and sub-nanosecond timing resolution. Many of these remote sensing applications furthermore are satellite and space based, where the imaging array also needs to be rad hard; particularly for the harsh radiation environments typically found on certain deep space missions, such as to the moons of Jupiter. LightSpin Technologies is developing a high performance solid-state cross-strip anode imaging single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array technology using rad hard GaAs SPAD arrays. This approach promises substantial improvements in spatial resolution (<10 microns), timing resolution (<100 psec), and count rate (>10 Gcps). LightSpin has proven the concept provides excellent performance in small arrays (8 X 8 pixels) and developed a theoretical foundation enabling rapid scaling of the arrays to achieve Megapixel resolution at low cost.