Design and Implementation of a Compact Single-Photon Counting Module

Abstract

A compact single-photon counting module that can accurately control the bias voltage and hold-off time is developed in this work. The module is a microcontroller-based system which mainly consists of a microcontroller, a programmable negative voltage generator, a silicon-based single-photon avalanche diode, and an integrated active quench and reset circuit. The module is 3.8 cm × 3.6 cm × 2 cm in size and can communicate with the end user and be powered through a USB cable (5 V). In this module, the bias voltage of the single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is precisely controllable from −14 V ~ −38 V and the hold-off time (consequently the dead time) of the SPAD can be adjusted from a few nanoseconds to around 1.6 μs with a setting resolution of ∼6.5 ns. Experimental results show that the module achieves a minimum dead time of around 28.5 ns, giving a saturation counting rate of around 35 Mcounts/s. Results also show that at a controlled reverse bias voltage of 26.8 V, the dark count rate measured is about 300 counts/s and the timing jitter measured is about 158 ps. Photodetection probability measurements show that the module is suited for detection of visible light from 450 nm to 800 nm with a 40% peak photon detection efficiency achieved at around 600 nm.

1. Introduction

Single-photon counting techniques have been used in low-light sensing applications such as LIDAR [1,2], quantum key distribution [3], medical imaging technology [4], and 3D imaging technology [5,6]. Photomultiplier tubes have been the traditional solution for photon counting applications, but in recent years single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) has become an alternative candidate due to its lower cost, lower operating voltage, higher sensitivity, and smaller size.

The dead time in a SPAD is the off time when the SPAD is quenched after every avalanche event to dissipate trapped charge, thereby minimizing the “afterpulsing” phenomenon. As a result, a trade-off exists between the maximum photon counting rate and an acceptable level of noise. An accurate adjustment of the dead time is important to achieve an optimal dead time (and consequently optimal maximum photon counting rate) in a single-photon counting system. The bias voltage has a major effect on the SPAD’s important performance parameters such as dark count rate (DCR) and photon detection efficiency (PDE). A higher bias voltage will lead to better PDE due to the increase in the avalanche trigger probability. However, the potential drawbacks include higher DCR and the considerable afterpulsing effect. Therefore, the bias voltage should be adjustable and optimized to achieve best overall performance. Several SPAD-based single-photon counting modules have been developed [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17] but these modules are limited in that the dead time and bias voltage of the detector are difficult to change. This limits their usefulness in varying environments and for the case where the detector needs to be changed for different measurement purposes. In addition, existing designs are usually bulky and cumbersome, which limits their usefulness in applications that require compact solutions.

In this work, a compact multi-parameter adjustable single-photon counting module is developed. The module is a microcontroller-based system mainly consisting of a programmable negative voltage generator, a silicon-based SPAD, an active quenching and reset integrated circuit (AQR-IC) and I/O components. In this module, a custom designed SPAD was fabricated and used with its bias voltage precisely controllable from −14 V ~ −38 V using a programmable negative voltage generator. With the AQR-IC, the hold-off time (consequently the dead time) in the SPAD can be adjusted from a few nanoseconds to around 1.6 µs with a setting resolution of ∼6.5 ns. A microcontroller of the module is used to drive and control the SPAD’s bias voltage and hold-off time which can also be connected to a PC through USB for the graphical user interface. With the control of the bias voltage and high-resolution setting of the dead time, intelligent control can be added to the module for detection optimizations under varying environments that greatly improve the SPAD-based photon counting system’s robustness. In addition, the module developed is about 3.8 cm × 3.6 cm × 2 cm in volume, allowing it to be used in compact photon counting systems. Experimental results show that the module achieves a minimum dead time of around 28.5 ns which demonstrates a saturation counting rate of around 35 Mcounts/s. At a controlled reverse bias voltage of 26.8 V, the DCR measured is about 300 counts/s and the timing jitter measured is about 158 ps. Photodetection probability measurements show that the module is suited for detection of visible light from 450 nm to 800 nm with a 40% peak PDE at around 600 nm.

2. System Description

Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the single-photon counting module consisting of the following parts: (1) A Microcontroller (STC89C52RC) circuitry which is used to communicate with the user end (PC) via an USB to TTL chip and also used for the control of bias voltage and the hold-off time; (2) A programmable negative voltage generator which is used to generate a stable and controllable negative high voltage for the SPAD; (3) An active quenching and reset integrated circuit (AQR-IC) for the hold-off time setting in the SPAD and (4) A custom designed SPAD.

2.1. Microcontroller Circuitry

In the microcontroller circuitry, a crystal oscillator is used to provide the clock pulses to the microcontroller chip which is powered through a USB cable. The circuitry is used to receive the control information (including hold-off time and bias voltage value) from PC (end user) through the USB-TTL converter chip and sends the control signals to related circuitry for the bias voltage and hold-off time setting in the SPAD. The microcontroller sets the eight binary ports S₀~S₇ of the AQR-IC, from 0 (“00000000”) to 255 (“11111111”) to achieve the hold-off time of 6.5 ns~1.6 μs in the SPAD. It also sends “ADJ” signal to the programmable negative voltage generator to achieve the required negative bias voltage for biasing the SPAD.

2.2. Programmable Negative Voltage Generator

Figure 2 shows the schematic of the programmable negative voltage generator. In the circuit, a boost circuit (consists of a bipolar transistor, an inductor, a diode and two capacitors) is used to generate high negative output voltage and a MAX749 chip (digitally adjustable bias regulator) [18]-based circuit is used to drive the boost circuit, detect the feedback signal, and maintain the output voltage at a set value. The output of the programmable negative voltage generator is determined by the internal reference current, I_REF of the chip which is set by the microcontroller (through signal line, ADJ). When the voltage generator is operating, if the current flowing through the feedback resistance (R_FB), I_S, is greater than the reference current, I_REF, the boost circuit will be stopped and the absolute value of the output voltage will drop and the I_S will decrease. If I_S falls below I_REF, the boost circuit will be driven to continue to boost the output and the absolute value of the output voltage will increase and the I_S will increase. In this way, I_S can be set equal to I_REF and the output voltage −V_OUT can be controlled as follows:

$$-{\mathrm{V}}_{\mathrm{OUT}}={\mathrm{I}}_{\mathrm{REF}}\times {\mathrm{R}}_{\mathrm{FB}}$$

(1)

In this design, the feedback resistance R_FB is set to 2 MΩ and the reference current can be set from around 7 μA to 19 μA. This makes the setting range of the programmable negative voltage generator to be around −14 V ~ −38 V.

2.3. SPAD and AQR-IC

The SPAD and AQR-IC used in the module are previously designed chips [19,20,21,22]. The SPAD is a 20 µm diameter planar SPAD which is based on a shallow p-n junction. It is manufactured in p-type epitaxially grown bulk silicon using a 1.5 µm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) compatible process and suited for detection of visible wavelengths (from 400 nm to 850 nm) [19,20]. In the SPAD, a p-substrate with a p-type doping forming the central active area and the N⁺ doping overlaps the active area, forms the diode cathode, and contact to metal layers. The overlapping guard ring, and the diode forms with the p-substrate, prevents edge breakdown of the central active area. The AQR-IC is used to actively quench the SPAD after each avalanche event (lower its reverse bias voltage below its breakdown voltage), keep it in “OFF” state for a period of user-defined time (hold-off time) and set the reverse bias voltage back to its original level for the next avalanche detection. The hold-off time (and the dead time) is controlled by the end user through the PC and the microcontroller chip. With the developed active quenching and reset IC, the maximum counting rate of the module can be greatly extended and the after pulsing effects can be effectively reduced. The photos of the fabricated SPAD and AQR-IC can be seen in Figure 3a,b, respectively.

3. Experimental Results

Figure 4 shows the assembled single-photon counting module. The module consists of a main board, a cubic black package, and a fiber adapter that allows coupling of incident light to the SPAD through a fiber.

Figure 5a shows the experimental results for the reverse bias voltage setting in the module. By inputting the required voltage in the user graphic interface (GUI), the bias voltage will be adjusted. Results show that the bias voltage can be accurately set from −14 V to −38 V with standard deviation of less than 0.06 V and output voltage ripples of less than 50 mV. The setting range and resolution can be changed by setting the feedback current flowing to the feedback port of the MAX749 chip in the programmable negative voltage generator circuit. Figure 5b shows the setting of the hold-off time in SPAD of the module. The hold-off time can also be adjusted using the PC-based GUI. As can be seen from the figure, by changing the input code from “1” to “255”, the hold-off time in the SPAD can be linearly and precisely adjusted from several nano seconds to 1.6 µs with a setting resolution of about 6.5 ns. With the minimum hold-off time, a dead-time of around 28.5 ns can be achieved, giving a saturation counting rate of around 35 Mcounts/s.

To test the PDE and the dark count characteristics of the module, an experimental setup shown in Figure 6 was built. In the setup, a broad band light source (Thorlabs SLS201L/M) is used with its output light guided to a filter holder (Thorlabs FOFMF/M) by a fiber and the output of the filter holder is connected to the SPAD using another fiber. Optical band-pass filters and attenuation filters are used to alter the spectrum and power intensity of the light directed to the SPAD. A counter (FCA3100) is used to record the pulse counting rate at the output of the module.

Figure 7 shows the DCR measured for different bias voltages. This measurement was carried out when the light source is turned off and the hold-off times was set to about 100 ns, 500 ns, and 1000 ns. Results show that with overran excess bias voltage of 1 V (reverse bias voltage of around 25.6 V), the DCR in the SPAD is about 80 counts/s and when the excess bias voltage increased to 3 V, the DCR increases to about 1 kcounts/s.

Figure 8 shows the PDE measured for different wavelengths and reverse bias voltages. In the measurement, a broad-spectrum light source is used to provide the incident light to the module and optical filters are used to select the specific wavelength and alter the power intensity of the incident light. For each specific wavelength, the incident light power and the photon counting rate of the module are measured and the PDE of the module is calculated. Results show that the module is suited for detecting the short wavelengths of the incident light from 400 nm to 800 nm with a peak PDE of about 40% achieved at 600 nm.

Figure 9 shows the experimental setup for measuring the afterpulsing probability. A pulsed pico-second laser source operating at 10 kHz was used to generate the incident light which was coupled to the SPAD of the module. The laser source used is from ALPHALAS GmbH and the part number of the laser driver and the diode laser are “PLDD-50M” and “PICOPOWER-LD-660-50” respectively. The output of the module is connected to the two ports (start and stop) of a Time-to-digital converter (TDC). The TDC’s “start” channel is triggered by the rising edge of the output pulse of the module and the “stop” channel is triggered by the falling edge of the next neighboring pulse. In this way, the time interval between every two pulses is recorded. After a large amount of data collection (around 10,000 samples), the distribution histogram of the interval times between two adjacent pulses can be built and the afterpulsing probability can be concluded [23,24,25,26].

Figure 10 shows the measured afterpulsing probability in the module for different hold-off times with a bias voltage of 27.6 V. Results show that when the hold-off time of the SPAD is set to more than 500 ns, the afterpulsing probability can be significantly limited to below 0.3%. Results also show that as the bias voltage increases, the afterpulsing probability will also rise.

To measure the timing jitter of the module, the experimental setup shown in Figure 11 was built. In the setup, a 660 nm pulsed laser is used to generate a pulsed light signal to the SPAD of the module and the time delay between the laser synchronized pulse signal and the pulses of the module’s output is measured using a TDC. The time delays’ histogram distribution is then built and its full width half maximum (FWHM) is taken as the system’s timing jitter [27].

Figure 12 shows the timing responses of the module for different bias voltages. In the measurement, the hold-off time was set to about 200 ns. As can be seen from the figure, increasing the bias voltage results in narrower timing jitter and a timing jitter of 145 ps was measured at the bias voltage of 27.6 V.

To test the heat dissipation of the module, the module was operated continually at room temperature (20 °C) for more than 3 hours and the temperature of the main chips and components on the board (including microcontroller chip, Max749 (boost circuit) chip, USB to TTL chip, DAC chip, 5 V–3 V stabilizer, chip crystal oscillators, SPAD and AQR-IC) was measured. Results show that most the main components are kept cool with the temperature of less than 30 °C.

The breakdown voltage and DCR temperature dependency (using a temperature chamber) were also tested. As can be seen from Figure 13, the breakdown voltage of the SPAD rises with increasing temperature at about 0.024 V per °C. Figure 14 shows the plot of the DCR for different temperatures, in this case the excess bias voltage is kept at 1 V. Results show that the DCR increases with increasing temperature by about 23 counts/s per °C.

4. Conclusions

In this paper, the design, the implementation, and the characterization of new compact single-photon counting module is presented. The module enables accurate digital control of the bias voltage and hold-off time of the SPAD. This enables the intelligent optimization of photon detection in varying environments to enhance the module’s robustness. In the system, a programmable negative voltage generator was designed to provide the bias voltage for the SPAD and an active quench and reset chip was developed for the hold-off time control, afterpulsing reduction, and maximum counting rate extension. The new implementation includes a silicon SPAD fabricated in-house is used as the photon detector and a microcontroller system supervises the user interface and the setting of bias voltage and hold-off time. The module is 3.8 cm × 3.6 cm × 2 cm in size and can be powered using a USB connection that allows it to be used in compact single-photon counting applications. Experimental results show that the module can provide a controlled bias voltage for the SPAD from −14 V ~ −38 V with a setting resolution of 0.4 V and the hold-off time (consequently the dead time) in the SPAD from a few nanoseconds to around 1.6 µs with a setting resolution of ∼6.5 ns. Results showed the module can achieve a minimum dead time of 28.5 ns that leads to a maximum counting rate of around 35 Mcounts/s. At a controlled bias voltage of 26.8 V, a low DCR of 300 counts/s and a low timing jitter of 158 ps can be achieved. Results also show that when the hold-off time was set to more than 500 ns, the afterpulsing can be effectively reduced to below 0.3%. In addition, the photodetection probability measurements show that the module is suited for detection of short wavelengths of the light from 450 nm to 800 nm with a 40% peak PDE achieved at 600 nm.