Single photon avalanche photodiodes arrays

Abstract In this paper, we present the results regarding the electrical and optical characterization of bidimensional arrays of silicon single photon avalanche photodiodes (SPAD). Low average dark count rates and crosstalk probability, good timing jitter and high quantum detection efficiency in the visible range have been measured over 5 × 5 SPAD arrays with 40 μm single pixel active area diameter. Moreover, a very good uniformity of these parameters has been found over the single pixels. These good electro-optical performances make our photodiodes attractive for the fabrication of arrays with a larger number of SPAD. In view of the design of a dense array to be used as a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) for medical diagnostic tools, 5 × 5 SPAD arrays have been also tested in the photon-resolving mode. Charge spectra show that the arrays, in this configuration, allow to resolve several photoelectron peaks with a good single photoelectron resolution.

[1]  P.-A. Besse,et al.  Design and characterization of a CMOS 3-D image sensor based on single photon avalanche diodes , 2005, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[2]  Alan Mathewson,et al.  Characterization of novel active area silicon avalanche photodiodes operating in the geiger mode , 2004 .

[3]  J. Charles,et al.  A multimechanism model for photon generation by silicon junctions in avalanche breakdown , 1999 .

[4]  H. Thienpont,et al.  A single photon spectrometer for biomedical applications , 2005, European Conference on Biomedical Optics.

[5]  Alan Mathewson,et al.  Toward integrated single-photon-counting microarrays , 2003 .

[6]  H. W. van Zeijl,et al.  A silicon avalanche photodiode for single optical photon counting in the Geiger mode , 1997 .

[7]  L. Cosentino,et al.  Arrays of Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[8]  R. Mirzoyan,et al.  A test of silicon photomultipliers as readout for PET , 2005 .

[9]  A. Lacaita,et al.  Avalanche photodiodes and quenching circuits for single-photon detection. , 1996, Applied optics.

[10]  Franco Zappa,et al.  Silicon planar technology for single-photon optical detectors , 2003 .

[11]  H Thienpont,et al.  SPAD arrays and micro-optics: towards a real single photon spectrometer , 2007 .

[12]  Alan Mathewson,et al.  Photon-counting arrays for spatially varying low-light-level signals , 1993, Optics & Photonics.

[13]  V. Saveliev,et al.  Novel type of avalanche photodetector with Geiger mode operation , 2004 .

[14]  S. Cova,et al.  SPADA: single-photon avalanche diode arrays , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[15]  R. Popovic,et al.  First fully integrated 2-D array of single-photon detectors in standard CMOS technology , 2003, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[16]  S. Cova,et al.  Compact active quenching circuit for fast photon counting with avalanche photodiodes , 1996 .