New position-sensitive avalanche photodiode with single photon sensitivity and picosecond resolution

Author

Ripamonti, G. ; Cova, S. ; Ghioni, M. ; Mastrapasqua, M. ; Giannetta, F.

Author_Institution

Dipartimento di Elettronica, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

fYear

1990

fDate

9-12 Dec. 1990

Firstpage

633

Lastpage

636

Abstract

A position-sensitive silicon photodetector based on a new principle is introduced. The detector device is a special avalanche photodiode with elongated geometry, which operates biased above the breakdown voltage in the so-called Geiger mode. The exploited physical effect is the propagation of the avalanche perpendicular to the electric field. The position information is extracted from the risetime of the current signal. Experimental device structures with active area of 140 by 14 mu m have been fabricated and tested. Spatial resolution of better than 10 mu m FWHM (full width at half maximum) combined with ultrahigh sensitivity (single photon detection) and temporal resolution better than 100 ps FWHM are demonstrated.<>

Keywords

avalanche photodiodes; elemental semiconductors; photodetectors; silicon; FWHM; Geiger mode; active area; breakdown voltage; elongated geometry; picosecond resolution; position-sensitive avalanche photodiode; risetime; single photon detection; single photon sensitivity; temporal resolution; ultrahigh sensitivity; Avalanche photodiodes; Data mining; Detectors; Geometry; Photodetectors; Signal resolution; Silicon; Spatial resolution; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 1990. IEDM '90. Technical Digest., International

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

ISSN

0163-1918

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.1990.237119

Filename

237119