PMID- 27505749
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20180126
LR  - 20181113
IS  - 1094-4087 (Electronic)
IS  - 1094-4087 (Linking)
VI  - 24
IP  - 16
DP  - 2016 Aug 8
TI  - High-voltage integrated active quenching circuit for single photon count rate up 
      to 80 Mcounts/s.
PG  - 17819-31
LID - 10.1364/OE.24.017819 [doi]
AB  - Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) have been subject to a fast improvement in 
      recent years. In particular, custom technologies specifically developed to 
      fabricate SPAD devices give the designer the freedom to pursue the best detector 
      performance required by applications. A significant breakthrough in this field is 
      represented by the recent introduction of a red enhanced SPAD (RE-SPAD) 
      technology, capable of attaining a good photon detection efficiency in the near 
      infrared range (e.g. 40% at a wavelength of 800 nm) while maintaining a 
      remarkable timing resolution of about 100ps full width at half maximum. Being 
      planar, the RE-SPAD custom technology opened the way to the development of SPAD 
      arrays particularly suited for demanding applications in the field of life 
      sciences. However, to achieve such excellent performance custom SPAD detectors 
      must be operated with an external active quenching circuit (AQC) designed on 
      purpose. Next steps toward the development of compact and practical multichannel 
      systems will require a new generation of monolithically integrated AQC arrays. In 
      this paper we present a new, fully integrated AQC fabricated in a high-voltage 
      0.18 microm CMOS technology able to provide quenching pulses up to 50 Volts with fast 
      leading and trailing edges. Although specifically designed for optimal operation 
      of RE-SPAD devices, the new AQC is quite versatile: it can be used with any SPAD 
      detector, regardless its fabrication technology, reaching remarkable count rates 
      up to 80 Mcounts/s and generating a photon detection pulse with a timing jitter 
      as low as 119 ps full width at half maximum. The compact design of our circuit 
      has been specifically laid out to make this IC a suitable building block for 
      monolithically integrated AQC arrays.
FAU - Acconcia, Giulia
AU  - Acconcia G
FAU - Rech, Ivan
AU  - Rech I
FAU - Gulinatti, Angelo
AU  - Gulinatti A
FAU - Ghioni, Massimo
AU  - Ghioni M
LA  - eng
GR  - R01 GM095904/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Opt Express
JT  - Optics express
JID - 101137103
PMC - PMC5946911
EDAT- 2016/08/10 06:00
MHDA- 2016/08/10 06:01
PMCR- 2017/07/27
CRDT- 2016/08/10 06:00
PHST- 2016/08/10 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2016/08/10 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2016/08/10 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2017/07/27 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 348116 [pii]
AID - 262638 [pii]
AID - 10.1364/OE.24.017819 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Opt Express. 2016 Aug 8;24(16):17819-31. doi: 10.1364/OE.24.017819.