Research | IRIS

Time-Of-Flight (TOF) measuring technique relies on the measurement of the round-trip time needed by a light pulse to travel from the measurement system to a target and back again, which has been actively investigated by the IRIS research unit since 2002, exploring a number of different techniques, from triangulation to indirect and direct ToF.

Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs) allow detecting the arrival of a single photon for each pixel, potentially with the possibility of recording the arrival time. Since 2004, IRIS research unit has been conducting research in the field of devices and circuits for single photon detection.

Vision Sensors are special devices which not only capture the target image but also try to gather extra information directly at the chip level, making them an ideal component for an ultra-low power system. IRIS research unit is investigating several vision sensors with advanced on-chip processing capabilities enabling beyond state-of-the-art low power performance.

Multispectral imaging adds the wavelength as another variable capable of increasing the information carried by an image. Since 2005, the IRIS research unit directed research efforts beyond the visible range, exploring x-ray, infrared and terahertz radiation as regions of strong interest for imaging.

The IRIS activity on Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) leads to the development of new custom detector technologies, aimed the the optimization of different detector parameters, such as the Dark Count Rate, the Breakdown Voltage uniformity, the Photo Detection Efficiency, the Excess Noise Factor and the Dynamic Range.

Building on a 20-year long experience in the field, we design, simulate and fabricate in house custom silicon detectors for different needs, ranging from scientific research to industrial products. The production exploits the benefits of the recently upgraded 6", detector-grade clean room available at FBK and operated by MNF facility and a long-term expertise on specific detector technologies in high-energy physics applications.