Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count Rate

Single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) based on avalanche effect have been widely used in the detection of extremely weak light signals. Conventional SPAD devices manufactured with silicon-based CMOS technology have a high dark count rate (DCR), making it difficult to accurately detect single photon...

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Main Authors: Yang Wang, Xiangliang Jin, Shengguo Cao, Yan Peng, Jun Luo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
Series:IEEE Photonics Journal
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9090993/
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author Yang Wang
Xiangliang Jin
Shengguo Cao
Yan Peng
Jun Luo
author_facet Yang Wang
Xiangliang Jin
Shengguo Cao
Yan Peng
Jun Luo
author_sort Yang Wang
collection DOAJ
description Single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) based on avalanche effect have been widely used in the detection of extremely weak light signals. Conventional SPAD devices manufactured with silicon-based CMOS technology have a high dark count rate (DCR), making it difficult to accurately detect single photon signals. This paper proposes a low dark count rate ring-gate SPAD (RG-SPAD) to solve above problems, and compares RG-SPAD with conventional SPAD (C-SPAD) and conventional dummy-gate SPAD (CDG-SPAD). Slivaco-Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) performs two-dimensional simulation of the device to verify the basic principles of SPAD. Three types of SPAD device are manufactured by standard BCD process. The passive quenching circuit is built to obtain the DCR of SPAD devices. The avalanche breakdown voltages of C-SPAD, CDG-SPAD and RG-SPAD are 11.55 V, 11.85 V and 11.4 V respectively. In order to test the dark count rate of SPAD devices, an over-bias voltage of 1 V was applied to three types of SPAD device under the same size condition (temperature: 22 °C). The DCR of RG-SPAD (186 Hz) with ring-gate structure is significantly lower than CDG-SPAD (378 Hz) with conventional dummy-gate structure and C-SPAD (498 Hz) with conventional structure. When the room temperature dropped to 18 °C, RG-SPAD still maintained the lowest DCR (148 Hz) among three types of device structure.
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spelling doaj-art-9451a4b5ba254a14a1de08ecd772f2fb2025-08-20T03:16:05ZengIEEEIEEE Photonics Journal1943-06552020-01-0112311110.1109/JPHOT.2020.29936549090993Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count RateYang Wang0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9732-142XXiangliang Jin1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9732-142XShengguo Cao2Yan Peng3Jun Luo4School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, ChinaSchool of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, ChinaSchool of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, ChinaSchool of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, ChinaSchool of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, ChinaSingle photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) based on avalanche effect have been widely used in the detection of extremely weak light signals. Conventional SPAD devices manufactured with silicon-based CMOS technology have a high dark count rate (DCR), making it difficult to accurately detect single photon signals. This paper proposes a low dark count rate ring-gate SPAD (RG-SPAD) to solve above problems, and compares RG-SPAD with conventional SPAD (C-SPAD) and conventional dummy-gate SPAD (CDG-SPAD). Slivaco-Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) performs two-dimensional simulation of the device to verify the basic principles of SPAD. Three types of SPAD device are manufactured by standard BCD process. The passive quenching circuit is built to obtain the DCR of SPAD devices. The avalanche breakdown voltages of C-SPAD, CDG-SPAD and RG-SPAD are 11.55 V, 11.85 V and 11.4 V respectively. In order to test the dark count rate of SPAD devices, an over-bias voltage of 1 V was applied to three types of SPAD device under the same size condition (temperature: 22 °C). The DCR of RG-SPAD (186 Hz) with ring-gate structure is significantly lower than CDG-SPAD (378 Hz) with conventional dummy-gate structure and C-SPAD (498 Hz) with conventional structure. When the room temperature dropped to 18 °C, RG-SPAD still maintained the lowest DCR (148 Hz) among three types of device structure.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9090993/Silicon nanophotonicsphotodetectorssensors
spellingShingle Yang Wang
Xiangliang Jin
Shengguo Cao
Yan Peng
Jun Luo
Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count Rate
IEEE Photonics Journal
Silicon nanophotonics
photodetectors
sensors
title Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count Rate
title_full Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count Rate
title_fullStr Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count Rate
title_full_unstemmed Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count Rate
title_short Design and Measurement of Ring-Gate Single Photon Avalanche Diode With Low Dark Count Rate
title_sort design and measurement of ring gate single photon avalanche diode with low dark count rate
topic Silicon nanophotonics
photodetectors
sensors
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9090993/
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AT xiangliangjin designandmeasurementofringgatesinglephotonavalanchediodewithlowdarkcountrate
AT shengguocao designandmeasurementofringgatesinglephotonavalanchediodewithlowdarkcountrate
AT yanpeng designandmeasurementofringgatesinglephotonavalanchediodewithlowdarkcountrate
AT junluo designandmeasurementofringgatesinglephotonavalanchediodewithlowdarkcountrate