Quenching Statistics of Silicon Single Photon Avalanche Diodes

The statistical behavior of silicon-based single-photon-avalanche-diodes (SPADs) is investigated by using self-consistent 3-D Monte Carlo simulations. The coupling of Poisson and Boltzmann transport equations allows us to go beyond the analysis of avalanche breakdown and its timing and to extend the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thibauld Cazimajou, Marco Pala, Jerome Saint-Martin, Remi Helleboid, Jeremy Grebot, Denis Rideau, Philippe Dollfus
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: IEEE 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/4f43bde47a5d4c2a88d31a2dd2793d90
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The statistical behavior of silicon-based single-photon-avalanche-diodes (SPADs) is investigated by using self-consistent 3-D Monte Carlo simulations. The coupling of Poisson and Boltzmann transport equations allows us to go beyond the analysis of avalanche breakdown and its timing and to extend the investigation to the quenching of the photodetector circuit. We find out that the quenching of SPADs is probabilistic and strongly depends on the surrounding circuit, in particular on the so-called quenching resistance. Independently of the SPAD deadtime, it appears that the extinction time needed to suppress any avalanche event may vary over a very large range.