Speaker
Description
Optical intensity interferometry represents a powerful technique to probe astrophysical sources, such as accretion disks around compact stellar systems, at angular resolutions unattainable with conventional imaging methods. To address the stringent requirements of single-photon sensitivity and picosecond timing, we have designed a 110 nm CMOS integrated circuit combining a 528×16 SPAD array with 128 Vernier TDCs. The design enables continuous photon time-stamping at 10 MHz acquisition rate, while ensuring that data can be transmitted off-chip with high reliability. Post-layout simulations confirm that the system achieves sub-10 ps timing resolution, with minimal jitter, while delivering an aggregate throughput of 48 Gb/s over 44 LVDS channels. These results demonstrate that our design provides a scalable platform for next generation astronomical instrumentation, enabling real-time photon correlation measurements at previously inaccessible angular scales.
