CMOS SPADs have appeared in 2003 and soon have risen to the status of image sensors with the creation of deep-submicron SPAD technology.
The current promise is that SPAD based sensors will be in every smartphone by 2018 and in every car by 2022. For instance, super-resolution microscopy has already benefited from SPAD imagers and this trend is expected to continue well in the next decade.
With the introduction of SPADs in 3D CMOS IC technologies in 2014, SPAD based imagers will be more compact, while at the same time more advanced techniques and functionalities will be available. In the talk, Dr. Edoardo Charbon, co-founder and CSO of Fastree3D, will give a technical and economic perspective on SPADs and SPAD imagers, and a vision for the medium to long term.