Variable-load quenching circuit for single-photon avalanche diodes.
We present a compact 50 microm x 100 microm cell for single-photon detection, based on a new circuitry monolithically integrated together with a 20 microm-diameter CMOS Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD). The detector quenching relies on a novel mechanism based on starving the avalanche current till quenching through a variable-load (VLQC, Variable- Load Quenching Circuit). Fabricated in a standard 0.35 microm CMOS technology, the topology allows a SPAD bias voltage higher than the chip supply voltage to be used. Moreover it preserves the advantages of active quenching circuits, in terms of hold-off capability (from 40 ns to 2 micros) and fast reset (</=2 ns), while maintaining the low avalanche charge (</=1.6 pC/avalanche) and extremely small dimensions of passive quenching circuits. The cell enables the development of large-dimension dense arrays of SPADs, for two-dimensional imaging at the photon counting level with photon-timing jitter better than 40 ps.
Tisa
Simone
S
Politecnico di Milano, Dip. Elettronica e Informazione - piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, I-20133 Milano, Italy. tisa@elet.polimi.it
Guerrieri
Fabrizio
F
Zappa
Franco
F
D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D010783:Photometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017785:Photons; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012666:Semiconductors; D014159:Transducers