Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays

Avalanche diodes operating in Geiger mode are able to detect single photon events. They can be employed to photon counting and time-of-flight estimation. In order to ensure proper operation of these devices, the avalanche current must be rapidly quenched, and, later on, the initial equilibrium must...

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Autores: Vornicu, Ion, Carmona Galán, Ricardo, Pérez Verdú, Belén, Rodríguez Vázquez, Ángel Benito
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/91956
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/91956
https://doi.org/10.1002/cta.2113
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Active quenching/recharge (AQR) circuit
Afterpulsing reduction
Geiger mode
Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD)
Tunable dead time
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spelling Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arraysVornicu, IonCarmona Galán, RicardoPérez Verdú, BelénRodríguez Vázquez, Ángel BenitoActive quenching/recharge (AQR) circuitAfterpulsing reductionGeiger modeSingle-photon avalanche diode (SPAD)Tunable dead timeAvalanche diodes operating in Geiger mode are able to detect single photon events. They can be employed to photon counting and time-of-flight estimation. In order to ensure proper operation of these devices, the avalanche current must be rapidly quenched, and, later on, the initial equilibrium must be restored. In this paper, we present an active quenching/recharge circuit specially designed to be integrated in the form of an array of single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors. Active quenching and recharge provide benefits like an accurately controllable pulse width and afterpulsing reduction. In addition, this circuit yields one of the lowest reported area occupations and power consumptions. The quenching mechanism employed is based on a positive feedback loop that accelerates quenching right after sensing the avalanche current. We have employed a current starved inverter for the regulation of the hold-off time, which is more compact than other reported controllable delay implementations. This circuit has been fabricated in a standard 0.18 μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The SPAD has a quasi-circular shape of 12 μm diameter active area. The fill factor is about 11%. The measured time resolution of the detector is 187 ps. The photon-detection efficiency (PDE) at 540 nm wavelength is about 5% at an excess voltage of 900 mV. The break-down voltage is 10.3 V. A dark count rate of 19 kHz is measured at room temperature. Worst case post-layout simulations show a 117 ps quenching and 280 ps restoring times. The dead time can be accurately tuned from 5 to 500 ns. The pulse-width jitter is below 1.8 ns when dead time is set to 40 ns.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-38921-C02, IPT-2011-1625-430000, IPC-20111009 CDTIJunta de Andalucía TIC 2338-2013Office of Naval Research (USA) N000141410355Wiley-BlackwellElectrónica y Electromagnetismo2016info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/11441/91956https://doi.org/10.1002/cta.2113reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevillainstname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)InglésInternational Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications, 44 (4), 917-928.TEC2012-38921-C02IPT-2011-1625-430000IPC-20111009 CDTITIC 2338-2013N000141410355http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cta.2113info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:idus.us.es:11441/919562026-06-17T12:51:07Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
title Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
spellingShingle Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
Vornicu, Ion
Active quenching/recharge (AQR) circuit
Afterpulsing reduction
Geiger mode
Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD)
Tunable dead time
title_short Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
title_full Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
title_fullStr Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
title_full_unstemmed Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
title_sort Compact CMOS active quenching/recharge circuit for SPAD arrays
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Vornicu, Ion
Carmona Galán, Ricardo
Pérez Verdú, Belén
Rodríguez Vázquez, Ángel Benito
author Vornicu, Ion
author_facet Vornicu, Ion
Carmona Galán, Ricardo
Pérez Verdú, Belén
Rodríguez Vázquez, Ángel Benito
author_role author
author2 Carmona Galán, Ricardo
Pérez Verdú, Belén
Rodríguez Vázquez, Ángel Benito
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Electrónica y Electromagnetismo
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Active quenching/recharge (AQR) circuit
Afterpulsing reduction
Geiger mode
Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD)
Tunable dead time
topic Active quenching/recharge (AQR) circuit
Afterpulsing reduction
Geiger mode
Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD)
Tunable dead time
description Avalanche diodes operating in Geiger mode are able to detect single photon events. They can be employed to photon counting and time-of-flight estimation. In order to ensure proper operation of these devices, the avalanche current must be rapidly quenched, and, later on, the initial equilibrium must be restored. In this paper, we present an active quenching/recharge circuit specially designed to be integrated in the form of an array of single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors. Active quenching and recharge provide benefits like an accurately controllable pulse width and afterpulsing reduction. In addition, this circuit yields one of the lowest reported area occupations and power consumptions. The quenching mechanism employed is based on a positive feedback loop that accelerates quenching right after sensing the avalanche current. We have employed a current starved inverter for the regulation of the hold-off time, which is more compact than other reported controllable delay implementations. This circuit has been fabricated in a standard 0.18 μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The SPAD has a quasi-circular shape of 12 μm diameter active area. The fill factor is about 11%. The measured time resolution of the detector is 187 ps. The photon-detection efficiency (PDE) at 540 nm wavelength is about 5% at an excess voltage of 900 mV. The break-down voltage is 10.3 V. A dark count rate of 19 kHz is measured at room temperature. Worst case post-layout simulations show a 117 ps quenching and 280 ps restoring times. The dead time can be accurately tuned from 5 to 500 ns. The pulse-width jitter is below 1.8 ns when dead time is set to 40 ns.
publishDate 2016
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2016
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
format article
status_str acceptedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/11441/91956
https://doi.org/10.1002/cta.2113
url https://hdl.handle.net/11441/91956
https://doi.org/10.1002/cta.2113
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications, 44 (4), 917-928.
TEC2012-38921-C02
IPT-2011-1625-430000
IPC-20111009 CDTI
TIC 2338-2013
N000141410355
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cta.2113
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley-Blackwell
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley-Blackwell
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
instname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
instname_str Universidad de Sevilla (US)
reponame_str idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
collection idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15.300719

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