scholarly journals Design of a Real-Time Breakdown Voltage and On-Chip Temperature Monitoring System for Single Photon Avalanche Diodes

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Shijie Deng ◽  
Alan P. Morrison ◽  
Yong Guo ◽  
Chuanxin Teng ◽  
Ming Chen ◽  
...  

The design and implementation of a real-time breakdown voltage and on-chip temperature monitoring system for single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) is described in this work. In the system, an on-chip shaded (active area of the detector covered by a metal layer) SPAD is used to provide a dark count rate for the breakdown voltage and temperature calculation. A bias circuit was designed to provide a bias voltage scanning for the shaded SPAD. A microcontroller records the pulses from the anode of the shaded SPAD and calculates its real-time dark count rate. An algorithm was developed for the microcontroller to calculate the SPAD’s breakdown voltage and the on-chip temperature in real time. Experimental results show that the system is capable of measuring the SPAD’s breakdown voltage with a mismatch of less than 1.2%. Results also show that the system can provide real-time on-chip temperature monitoring for the range of −10 to 50 °C with errors of less than 1.7 °C. The system proposed can be used for the real-time SPAD’s breakdown voltage and temperature estimation for dual-SPADs or SPAD arrays chip where identical detectors are fabricated on the same chip and one or more dummy SPADs are shaded. With the breakdown voltage and the on-chip temperature monitoring, intelligent control logic can be developed to optimize the performance of the SPAD-based photon counting system by adjusting the parameters such as excess bias voltage and dead-time. This is particularly useful for SPAD photon counting systems used in complex working environments such as the applications in 3D LIDAR imaging for geodesy, geology, geomorphology, forestry, atmospheric physics and autonomous vehicles.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5287
Author(s):  
Hiwa Mahmoudi ◽  
Michael Hofbauer ◽  
Bernhard Goll ◽  
Horst Zimmermann

Being ready-to-detect over a certain portion of time makes the time-gated single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) an attractive candidate for low-noise photon-counting applications. A careful SPAD noise and performance characterization, however, is critical to avoid time-consuming experimental optimization and redesign iterations for such applications. Here, we present an extensive empirical study of the breakdown voltage, as well as the dark-count and afterpulsing noise mechanisms for a fully integrated time-gated SPAD detector in 0.35-μm CMOS based on experimental data acquired in a dark condition. An “effective” SPAD breakdown voltage is introduced to enable efficient characterization and modeling of the dark-count and afterpulsing probabilities with respect to the excess bias voltage and the gating duration time. The presented breakdown and noise models will allow for accurate modeling and optimization of SPAD-based detector designs, where the SPAD noise can impose severe trade-offs with speed and sensitivity as is shown via an example.


Author(s):  
Aymeric Panglosse ◽  
Philippe Martin-Gonthier ◽  
Olivier Marcelot ◽  
Cedric Virmontois ◽  
Olivier Saint-Pe ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 437 ◽  
pp. 1073-1076
Author(s):  
Qing Yao Xu ◽  
Hong Pei Wang ◽  
Xiang Chao Hu ◽  
Hai Qian ◽  
Ying Cheng Peng ◽  
...  

To reduce the afterpulsing in single photon detection based on avalanche diodes, an advanced passive quenching circuit for operation in free-running mode is developed. The measurement setup is designed. The dark count rate (DCR) and afterpulsing of Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are measured. The results show that the new passive quenching circuit has a better afterpulsing performance compared to traditional circuits.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xun Ding ◽  
Kai Zang ◽  
Yueyang Fei ◽  
Tianzhe Zheng ◽  
Tao Su ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1507-1515
Author(s):  
Aymeric Panglosse ◽  
Philippe Martin-Gonthier ◽  
Olivier Marcelot ◽  
Cedric Virmontois ◽  
Olivier Saint-Pe ◽  
...  

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