Space-qualified silicon avalanche-photodiode single-photon-counting modules

Abstract

Abstract A space-qualified silicon avalanche-photodiode (APD) based single-photon-counting-module (SPCM) was developed for the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on board NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). Numerous improvements were made over the commercially available SPCMs in both performance and reliability. The measured optoelectronic parameters include, 65% photon detection efficiency at the 532nm wavelength, 15–17 mega-counts per second (Mcps) maximum count rate and less than 200s−1 dark counts before exposure to space radiation.