Memory effect in gated single-photon avalanche diodes: a limiting noise contribution similar to afterpulsing

D. Contini; A. Dalla Mora; L. Di Sieno; R. Cubeddu; A. Tosi; G. Boso; A. Pifferi

doi:10.1117/12.2005013

14 March 2013 Memory effect in gated single-photon avalanche diodes: a limiting noise contribution similar to afterpulsing

D. Contini, A. Dalla Mora, L. Di Sieno, R. Cubeddu, A. Tosi, G. Boso, A. Pifferi

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8619, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XXI; 86191L (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2005013
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2013, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

In recent years, emerging applications, such as diffuse optical imaging and spectroscopy (e.g., functional brain imaging and optical mammography), in which a wide dynamic range is crucial, have turned the interest towards Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD). In these fields, the use of a fast-gated SPAD has proven to be a successful technique to increase the measurement sensitivity of different orders of magnitude. However, an unknown background noise has been observed at high illumination during the gate-OFF time, thus setting a limit to the maximum increase of the dynamic range. In this paper we describe this noise in thin-junction silicon single-photon avalanche diode when a large amount of photons reaches the gated detector during the OFF time preceding the enabling time. This memory effect increases the background noise with respect to primary dark count rate similarly to a classical afterpulsing process, but differently it is not related to a previous avalanche ignition in the detector. We discovered that memory effect increases linearly with the power of light impinging on the detector and it has an exponential trend with time constants far different from those of afterpulsing and independently of the bias voltage applied to the junction. For these reasons, the memory effect is not due to the same trapping states of afterpulsing and must be described as a different process.

Citation Download Citation

D. Contini, A. Dalla Mora, L. Di Sieno, R. Cubeddu, A. Tosi, G. Boso, and A. Pifferi "Memory effect in gated single-photon avalanche diodes: a limiting noise contribution similar to afterpulsing", Proc. SPIE 8619, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XXI, 86191L (14 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2005013

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
9 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Sensors

Photons

Avalanche photodiodes

Pulsed laser operation

Silicon

Optical testing

Solids

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years