Reduce Afterpulsing of Single Photon Avalanche Diodes Using Passive Quenching With Active Reset

Abstract

In this paper, we report a passive-quenching-with-active-reset circuit designed to reduce afterpulsing for single photon avalanche diodes. This circuit uses a large resistor to passively quench the avalanche current and a transistor to actively reset the device to the operating voltage after a specified hold-off time. Afterpulsing can be reduced by minimizing the stray capacitance of the package to reduce the total charge flow during avalanche. Proof of principle is demonstrated with discrete components. It is expected that by integrating the transistor with the avalanche photodiode the stray capacitance can be minimized to significantly reduce afterpulsing.