Lucio Pancheri

1996: Scientific School Certificate at the Scientific Liceo “B. Russell" in Cles (TN), Italy, with final evaluation of 60/60.

2002: M.S. degree in Materials Engineering (Laurea in Ingegneria dei Materiali) at the University of Trento with final evaluation of 110/110 cum laude.  

2006: PhD in Information and Communication Technologies at the University of Trento. The PhD dissertation was titled “Design and characterization of novel silicon photodetectors for 3D imaging applications".

The research activity of Lucio Pancheri has been related to the design, modeling, fabrication and experimental characterization of electron devices and circuits, focusing on the following topics:

1. Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes in CMOS technology

This activity can be divided in a device-related part aimed at the realization of Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) detectors in CMOS technologies and a circuit/system work devoted to the fabrication of SPAD-based pixel arrays for bio-medical and 3D imaging applications.

The main results have been:

• Development of SPADs with good characteristics in different CMOS technology nodes. During the last years, functional SPADs in 0.8um, 0.7um, 0.35um and 0.15um CMOS technologies have been successfully demonstrated. 
• Design and fabrication of SPAD-based pixel arrays in standard CMOS technologies. The realized sensors consist of arrays of SPADs with time-resolved readout channels, which enable single photon imaging with sub-ns resolution. The application of these sensors as a low-cost tool for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM), both in biosensors and in advanced microscopy systems has been studied.

2. CMOS image sensors for 3D Imaging Applications

The core of this activity has been the design and testing of innovative electro-optical demodulators in standard CMOS technologies for Time of Flight 3D imaging applications. Lucio Pancheri has contributed to the whole development chain of 3D cameras based on the proposed devices, including TCAD device simulations, pixel and image sensor circuit simulations, design of the test boards, design and characterization of the illumination unit and image sensor testing.

The main results have been:

• Development of demodulating detectors in deep submicron technologies. In particular, it is worth mentioning the porting of Current-Assisted Photonic Demodulator to a 0.18um CMOS process and the realization of a novel buried-channel demodulator in a 0.18um CMOS technology.
• Design and fabrication of fully functional 3D camera systems based on the previously mentioned demodulating detectors.

3. Linear-mode Avalanche Photodiodes in CMOS technology

Within this activity, low noise APDs have been designed and  fabricated in different standard CMOS technology nodes. A 64x64 monolithic APD image sensor for Time of Flight 3D ranging has been implemented in a standard 0.35um CMOS technology and a 3D camera based on the sensor has been demonstrated.

4. Ionizing radiation and charge particle detectors

Lucio Pancheri has contributed to the design and characterization of radiation detectors, to be used in high resolution X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray imaging.

He was involved in the development of Low-Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) for the direct detection of charged particles with ps timing resolution, in collaboration with INFN and FBK. 

He also contributed to realize a CMOS pixelated particle detector using Geiger-Mode Avalanche Diodes in coincidence to reduce the dark event rate. 

He is currently involved in the development of a customized Fully-Depleted 110nm CMOS process for the realization of high-efficiency monolithic pixel sensors. In this context, the feasibility of the process has been demonstrated and a large-area sensor prototype is currently being developed with the support of the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics within project ARCADIA.

5. Organic photodiodes

The long-term goal of this activity, which has been conducted in collaboration with the university of Munich, Germany,  is the realization of an image sensor with tunable spectral response based on hybrid CMOS-organic technology. Within this activity, Lucio Pancheri has designed a readout chip in a standard CMOS technology tailored for the realization of a prototype hybrid image sensor including organic photodiodes. He has also contributed to the packaging and characterization of the prototype sensor.

6. Porous silicon gas sensors and optical devices

The main goal of this experimental activity was the exploitation of porous silicon multilayers in gas sensing applications. In the first part of the activity, porous silicon multilayers (Bragg mirrors, Fabry Perot optical microcavities) were fabricated and the characterization of their electrical and optical properties was carried out. Successively, the variation of  these properties in the presence of various gaseous species was measured to evaluate the possibility of employing this material in gas sensors for environmental monitoring. The fabricated structures exhibited very interesting optical properties and very high sensitivity towards NO₂ air pollutant.

10 selected publications

• L. Pancheri, R.A. Giampaolo, A. Di Salvo, S. Mattiazzo, T. Corradino, P. Giubilato, R. Santoro, M. Caccia, G. Margutti, J. E. Olave, M. Rolo, A. Rivetti, "Fully Depleted MAPS in 110-nm CMOS Process with 100–300-μm Active Substrate", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 67, No. 6, pp. 2393-2399, 2020.
• L. Pancheri, A. Ficorella, P. Brogi, G. Collazuol, G.-F. Dalla Betta, P.S. Marrocchesi, F. Morsani, L. Ratti, A. Savoy-Navarro, A. Sulaj, "First Demonstration of a Two-Tier Pixelated Avalanche Sensor for Charged Particle Detection," IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 404-410, 2017. 
• H. Xu, L. Pancheri, G.-F. Dalla Betta, D. Stoppa, "Design and characterization of a p+/n-well SPAD array in 150nm CMOS process," Optics Express, Vol. 25, No. 11, pp. 12765-12778, 2017.
• L. Pancheri, D. Stoppa, G.-F. Dalla Betta, "Characterization and Modeling of Breakdown Probability in Sub-Micrometer CMOS SPADs," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics , Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 1-8, 2014.
• L. Pancheri, G.-F. Dalla Betta, D. Stoppa, "Low-Noise Avalanche Photodiode With Graded Junction in 0.15-um CMOS Technology," IEEE Electron Device Letters , Vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 566-568, May 2014.
• L. Pancheri, N. Massari, D. Stoppa, "SPAD Image Sensor With Analog Counting Pixel for Time-Resolved Fluorescence Detection", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol.60, No.10, pp. 3442 - 3449, 2013.
• D. Baierl, L. Pancheri, M. Schmidt, D. Stoppa, G.-F. Dalla Betta, G. Scarpa, P. Lugli, "A hybrid CMOS-imager with a solution processable polymer as photoactive layer" in Nature Communications, v. 3:1175, p. 1-8, 2012.
• D. Stoppa, N. Massari, L. Pancheri, M. Malfatti, M. Perenzoni, L. Gonzo, “A Range Image Sensor Based on 10-um Lock-In Pixels in 0.18-um CMOS Imaging Technology”, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 248-258, 2011.
• D. Stoppa, D. Mosconi, L. Pancheri and L. Gonzo, “Single-Photon Avalanche Diode CMOS Sensor for Time-Resolved Fluorescence Measurements”, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 1084-1090, 2009.
• L. Pancheri, D. Stoppa, M. Scandiuzzo and G.-F. Dalla Betta, “Low Noise Avalanche Photodiode in Standard CMOS Technology”, IEEE Transactions of Electron Devices, vol. 55 pp. 457-461, 2008.

• Chair of ODI subcommittee in IEEE IEDM 2023
• Technical Committee member in IEEE IEDM 2021 and IEEE IEDM 2022
• Associate editor of IEEE Tran. Electron Devices, 2018 - present.

Invited talks:

• “Characterization and modeling of displacement damage in CMOS SPAD sensors”, The International SPAD Sensor Workshop (ISSW 2022), online event, June 13 - 15, 2022.
• "Silicon based sensors for Time Of Flight measurement," Terzo Incontro di Fisica con Ioni Pesanti alle Alte Energie, 25 - 26 November, Padova, Italy, 2021.
• "Timing detectors", ALICE 3: First workshop on physics and detector, CERN on-line event, 13-15 October, 2020.
• “Resource sharing in CMOS SPAD arrays: application requirements and design solutions”, 26th IEEE International Conference on Electronics Circuits and Systems (ICECS 2019), Genova, Italy, 27-29 Nov. 2019.
• “CMOS Pixel Sensors on Thick Fully-depleted Silicon Substrates for NIR Imaging”, PIERS 2019, Rome, Italy, 17-20 June 2019.
• "Two-tier Geiger-mode avalanche pixel sensors for charged particle detection", VIII International Course "Detectors and Electronics for High Energy Physics, Astrophysics, Space and Medical Physics, INFN National Laboratory of Legnaro, Italy, April 1-5, 2019.
• “APiX: a Geiger-mode avalanche digital sensor for charged particle detection”, 11th International Meeting on Front-End Electronics (FEE 2018), Jouvence, QC, CA, 20-25 May 2018.
• “Ultra-Fast Silicon Detectors”, Frascati Detector School, Frascati (RM), 21-23 March 2018.
• “CMOS MAPS: design challenges and state of the art", XXVII giornate di studio sui rivelatori, Cogne (AO), 12-16 February 2018.
• “State of the art and perspectives of CMOS silicon avalanche detectors”, CERN seminar, Geneva, CH, 20 January 2017.
• “Vertically-integrated CMOS Geiger-mode avalanche pixel sensors”, 14th Topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors (IPRD16), Siena, 3-6 Oct. 2016.
• “CMOS SiPM design and signal compression”, Training school on quantum detection, single-photon imaging, SiPMs, SPADs, University of Delft, NL, 22-24 May 2013.
• “Sensors Architectures for 3D Time-of-Flight Imaging”, Tutorial at Image Sensors 2012, London, UK, 20-22 March 2012.