# A megapixel time-gated SPAD image sensor for 2D and 3D imaging applications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.12910 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.12910/

## Key facts

- Cited by 28 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 30 Dec 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Emergent Visual Sensors for Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09383/) (2022)
- [Passive Inter-Photon Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00059/) (2021)
- [Consistent Direct Time-of-Flight Video Depth Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.08658/) (2022)
- [The Implicit Values of A Good Hand Shake: Handheld Multi-Frame Neural Depth Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13738/) (2021)
- [SoDaCam: Software-defined Cameras via Single-Photon Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.00066/) (2023)
- [Photon-Starved Scene Inference using Single Photon Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.11001/) (2021)
- [Single-Photon Structured Light](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.05300/) (2022)
- [Shakes on a Plane: Unsupervised Depth Estimation from Unstabilized Photography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.12324/) (2022)
- [Adaptive Gating for Single-Photon 3D Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.15047/) (2021)
- [Generalized Event Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02683/) (2024)
- [Role of Transients in Two-Bounce Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01308/) (2023)
- [Polarimetric Spatio-Temporal Light Transport Probing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.11609/) (2021)
- [Count-Free Single-Photon 3D Imaging with Race Logic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.04924/) (2023)
- [SVDC: Consistent Direct Time-of-Flight Video Depth Completion with Frequency Selective Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01257/) (2025)
- [Resolution Limit of Single-Photon LiDAR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17719/) (2024)
- [Recovering Parametric Scenes from Very Few Time-of-Flight Pixels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.16132/) (2025)
- [Non-Line-of-Sight Tracking and Mapping with an Active Corner Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01702/) (2022)
- [Large-scale single-photon imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.13654/) (2022)
- [Panoramas from Photons](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.03811/) (2023)
- [bit2bit: 1-bit quanta video reconstruction via self-supervised photon prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23247/) (2024)
- [Imaging dynamics beneath turbid media via parallelized single-photon detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.01422/) (2021)
- [Single-pixel 3D imaging based on fusion temporal data of single photon detector and millimeter-wave radar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.12439/) (2023)
- [Photon Inhibition for Energy-Efficient Single-Photon Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.18337/) (2024)
- [Joint Depth and Reflectivity Estimation using Single-Photon LiDAR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13250/) (2025)
- [Fundamental Recovery Bounds for SPAD Signals under Stationary Flux](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07599/) (2026)
- [Imaging Hidden Objects with Consumer LiDAR via Motion Induced Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.17865/) (2026)
- [Machine learning enables experimental access to photon-by-photon arrival times in scintillation detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27937/) (2026)
- [Practical Noise Modeling for SPAD Intensity Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.00489/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present the first 1Mpixel SPAD camera ever reported. The camera features 3.8ns time gating and 24kfps frame rate; it was fabricated in 180nm CIS technology. Two pixels have been designed with a pitch of 9.4μm in 7T and 5.75T configurations, respectively, achieving a maximum fill factor of 13.4%. The maximum PDP is 27%, median DCR 2.0cps, variation in gating length 120ps, position skew 410ps, and rise/fall time <550ps, all FWHM at 3.3V of excess bias. The sensor was used to capture 2D/3D scenes over 2m with an LSB of 5.4mm and a precision better than 7.8mm. Extended dynamic range is demonstrated in dual exposure operation mode. Spatially overlapped multi-object detection is experimentally demonstrated in single-photon time-gated ToF for the first time.