Compact active quenching circuit for fast photon counting with avalanche photodiodes

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1147156· OSTI ID:385881

Ghioni, M; Cova, S; Zappa, F; Samori, C ^[1]

---

1. Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione and CEQSE-CNR, Milano 20133 (Italy)

A compact and flexible circuit for operating avalanche photodiodes in Geiger mode was designed, fabricated, and tested. A new voltage driver stage, based on fast {ital n}-channel double-diffused metal{endash}oxide{endash}semiconductor (DMOS) transistors in a bootstrap configuration, makes it possible to obtain quenching pulses up to 25 V amplitude and fast active reset of the detector. At 20 V excess bias voltage above the photodiode breakdown level, an overall deadtime shorter than 36 ns is attained. The avalanche pulse charge is minimized by means of a mixed passive{endash}active quenching approach, thus reducing self-heating and afterpulsing effects in the photodiode. A user-controllable hold-off time is available for further reducing the afterpulsing effect. The saturated counting rate of the circuit exceeds 25 Mcounts/s, but, by working with avalanche photodiodes with high breakdown voltage (250{endash}400 V) and high avalanche current (10{endash}40 mA), a practical limit is set at about 9 Mcounts/s by thermal effects in the detector. Gated-detector operation with gate times down to 10 ns is provided. The suitability of the new active-quenching circuit for the development of compact, all-solid-state instruments for high-performance photon counting was verified in experimental tests. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}

• OSTI ID: 385881
• Journal Information: Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal Name: Review of Scientific Instruments Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 67; ISSN 0034-6748; ISSN RSINAK
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
COUNTING CIRCUITS
COUNTING RATES
NEAR INFRARED RADIATION
PERFORMANCE
PHOTODIODES
RADIATION DETECTION
VISIBLE RADIATION