Pictures in the dark: new project MISPIA gets underway
A new EU-funded project on low-light imaging has just been launched in Milan, Italy. The MISPIA ('Microelectronic single-photon 3D imaging arrays for low-light high-speed safety and security applications') project, funded with EUR 2.6 million under the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), pools the expertise of scientists and engineers in 20 countries to develop advanced imaging devices with numerous applications, including the prevention of car crashes. There is significant demand for devices that capture well-defined images at very low light levels and that are precise even at very long distances. Today, a wide range of high-end cameras offer high resolution but none of them offer both speed and ultra-high sensitivity. Those that come close to offering single-photon sensitivity need to be cooled and have relatively low frame rates. MISPIA project partners are developing new devices using chips that are light-sensitive down to a single photon (light particle) and which can send a signal of just a few picoseconds when the photon enters the device. This highly sensitive SPAD (single-photon avalanche diode) technology will allow the researchers to count single photons and tag them with their arrival time. Together with high frame rates (i.e. thousands of images per second) and intelligent pixel processing for sensing depth and intensity, this will allow the new devices to create complete two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) images of rapidly changing scenes in the dark. MISPIA will exploit standard CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) technology, which is used to construct image sensor integrated circuits using relatively little power and generates very little waste heat. The researchers will also use cutting-edge silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS processing, a semiconductor manufacturing technique that improves performance by reducing the loss of electrical current to neighbouring circuit parts. Advances in CMOS technology are also expected to reduce the costs of manufacture. The team plans to develop two main 3D imaging applications. The first is a system to be used in cars for pre-crash safety systems. It will focus on mapping between 10 and 50 metres in front of and behind the vehicle and will prompt the driver to act when anything is amiss. This can be particularly useful during night driving, when a car's lights may not be enough to illuminate imminent danger. The second 3D imaging device will be more complex, covering a larger spectrum and distances of up to a kilometre, mainly for the purpose of security surveillance. MISPIA project partners believe their new technology for SPAD arrays, 2D imaging and 3D 'ranging' chips will open up a whole new era in silicon photonics and microelectronic imaging. They hope their work will contribute to Europe's competitiveness in these areas compared to Canada, Japan and the US in the manufacture and deployment of ultra-high-sensitivity, fast camera sensor chips and systems. At the project's kick-off meeting, MISPIA members discussed the requirements, specifications and constraints of the project's proposed devices. The consortium, coordinated by Professor Franco Zappa of Italy's Politecnico di Milano, comprises seven leading European research organisations, including Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung in Germany, Heriot-Watt University in the UK, Micro Photon Devices in Italy, Centro Ricerche Fiat in Italy and EMZA Visual Sense in Israel, among others.
Countries
Italy