journal article·2020-03-22Open access

Current-Assisted Single Photon Avalanche Diode (CASPAD) Fabricated in 350 nm Conventional CMOS

Gobinath Jegannathan, Hans Ingelberts, Maarten Kuijk

Applied Sciences· Volume 10· Issue 6

Abstract

A current-assisted single-photon avalanche diode (CASPAD) is presented with a large and deep absorption volume combined with a small p-n junction in its middle to perform avalanche trigger detection. The absorption volume has a drift field that serves as a guiding mechanism to the photo-generated minority carriers by directing them toward the avalanche breakdown region of the p-n junction. This drift field is created by a majority current distribution in the thick (highly-resistive) epi-layer that is present because of an applied voltage bias between the p-anode of the avalanching region and the perimeter of the detector. A first CASPAD device fabricated in 350-nm CMOS shows functional operation for NIR (785-nm) photons; absorbed in a volume of 40 × 40 × 14 μm3. The CASPAD is characterized for its photon-detection probability (PDP), timing jitter, dark-count rate (DCR), and after pulsing.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies · Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques · Integrated Circuits and Semiconductor Failure Analysis

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Electronics and Informatics (ETRO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

Funding

Sony Depthsensing Solution · Vrije Universiteit Brussel

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