A Geiger-Mode APD Photon Counting System With Adjustable Dead-Time and Interchangeable Detector
- 5 October 2015
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
- Vol. 28 (1), 99-102
- https://doi.org/10.1109/lpt.2015.2487342
Abstract
A Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GM-APD) photon counting system is presented in this letter. The system provides a maximum counting rate of 35 Mcounts/s and is capable of directly displaying the counting rate and data logging to a PC. In this system, the detector can be easily changed to enhance its usefulness in different applications. A novel active quench and reset integrated circuit (AQR-IC) is designed for the system with adjustable hold-off time from several nanoseconds up to 1.6 μs with a setting resolution of ~6.5 ns. This facilitates optimal performance when using different types of APDs. The AQR-IC also registers each avalanche event as a TTL pulse that is processed by a microcontroller to calculate the photon-counting rate. The microcontroller can be interfaced with a PC over USB to record the measured data and to allow further processing. Software was also written to calculate the photon-counting rate, display the results and save the data to files.Keywords
Funding Information
- Science Foundation Ireland (07/SRC/I1173)
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Active quench and reset integrated circuit with novel hold-off time control logic for Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodesOptics Letters, 2012
- High-Speed and Compact Quenching Circuit for Single-Photon Avalanche DiodesIEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2008
- Single Photon Counting Module Based on Large Area APD and Novel Logic Circuit for Quench and Reset Pulse GenerationIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2007
- Intelligent System for Optimal Hold-Off Time Selection in an Active Quench and Reset ICIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2007
- Toward integrated single-photon-counting microarraysOptical Engineering, 2003
- Integrated bulk∕SOI APD sensor: bulk substrate inspection with Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodesElectronics Letters, 2003