Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes in a 0.16 μm BCD Technology With Sharp Timing Response and Red-Enhanced Sensitivity

Abstract

CMOS single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) have recently become an emerging imaging technology for applications requiring high sensitivity and high frame-rate in the visible and near-infrared range. However, a higher photon detection efficiency (PDE), particularly in the 700-950 nm range, is highly desirable for many growing markets, such as eye-safe three-dimensional imaging (LIDAR). In this paper, we report the design and characterization of SPADs fabricated in a 0.16 mu m BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) technology. The overall detection performance is among the best reported in the literature: 1) PDE of 60% at 500 nm wavelength and still 12% at 800 nm; 2) very low dark count rate of < 0.2 cps/mu m(2) (in counts per second per unit area); 3) < 1% afterpulsing probability with 50 ns dead-time; and 4) temporal response with 30 ps full width at half-maximum and less than 50 ps diffusion tail time constant