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Avalanche Photodiodes
Preprint · December 2022
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.17486.95042
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Isabelle Oliveira
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Avalanche Photodiode
I developed this study of optical efficiency in high performance design for specific
active optical devices.
The avalanche photodiode (APD) was invented by Japanese engineer Jun-ichi
Nishizawa in 1952.
An avalanche photodiode (APD) is a highly sensitive semiconductor photodiode that
exploits the photoelectric effect to convert light into electricity.
Typical applications for APDs are laser rangefinders, long-range fiber optics,
telecommunications and quantum detection for control algorithms, positron emission
tomography and particle physics, APD arrays and ray detection and optical SETI.
Graphene has now been used to prevent degradation over time, reduce its size and cost
for many diverse applications and vacuum tube salting devices.
Magnetic-optic imaging (MOI) allows visualizing the abrupt anisotropic flow
penetration in superconductors, flow avalanches, due to thermomagnetic instabilities in
the vortex matter.
Flow avalanches in dendritic pristine superconducting thin films, with ramifications, are
detrimental for applications of superconducting thin films, decorated with antidots
(ADs) arrangements, or holes, produced by electron beam lithography.
The antidot geometry of thin avalanches for thin films decorated with a square network
of square ADs, avalanches have a trunk parallel to the main axis of the triangular AD
network, with branches at 45° angles.
When applying a high reverse bias voltage ~ 100-200V on silicon, APDs achieve an
internal current gain effect > 100, due to impact ionization, avalanche effect.
This allows the detection of wavelengths at a spectral scale of 400-1100nm.
Some silicon APDs use doping and chamfering techniques that allow a voltage > 1500V
to be applied before the break is reached and an operational gain > 1000 occurs.
If a very high gain is required, 10^5 to 10^6, detectors related to APDs, single photon
avalanche diodes, can be used and operated with a reverse voltage above the typical
breakdown voltage of the APD, the photodetector must have its limited and decreased
signal current rapidly, using active and passive current extinguishing techniques.
SPADs, single photon avalanche diodes, which operate in this high-gain regime as
being in Geiger mode, which is for single photon detection, provided that the rate of
darkness counting events and the probability of post-pulsation are sufficiently low.
The avalanche break is a way of multiplying electric current that can allow very large
currents within insulating materials.
It is a type of electron avalanche.
The avalanche process occurs when carriers in the transition region are accelerated by
the electric field to sufficient energies to create pairs of moving or free electron gaps
through collisions with bound electrons.
In another analysis, a neuronal avalanche is a cascade of bursts of activity in neural
networks whose size distribution can be approximated by a power law, as in critical
sand pile models.
It is a measure of the extension of the range of stimulus intensities to which the network
is sufficiently sensitive, self-organized quasi-criticality, like other non-conservative
models.
Avalanche Photodetector
The avalanche photodiode demonstrates a much greater gain than photodiodes, and PIN
photodiodes in the order of 30dB, with the generation of electron-gap pairs by
bombardment of photons, new gaps are generated, being accelerated in directions
opposite to the movement of electrons, generating the avalanche effect, generating a
large output current in the device.
The main difference between avalanche and the zener fault is that the avalanche occurs
because of the electron collision, while the zener fault occurs due to the high electric
field.
The PN junction diode charge carrier absorbs heat from the environment at normal
room temperature.
When the reverse deviation is applied through the junction, the electron kinetic energy
increases and they begin to move at high speed.
As they move, they collide with the other atoms and create the number of free electrons
that cause the reverse saturation current.
Because of this saturation current, the fault mechanism occurs in the diode.
The collapse of the zener occurs in doped diodes.
The breakdown voltage of the avalanche is directly proportional to the temperature,
while the breakdown voltage of the zener is inversely proportional to the temperature.
The voltage of the zener break is less than the Avalanche failure.
The avalanche effect occurs when the diode is polarized inversely, with a very small
current circulating in the diode called leakage current.
As the reverse voltage grows, so does the electrical potential in the transition region, the
potential barrier, causing shocks capable of breaking covalent bonds.
Avalanche damage is the collapse of the PN mechanism - junction diodes that have a
thinner region.
After the junction breakdown occurs, it cannot recover its original position.
The avalanche photodiode is better than alternative detectors for detecting emissions
with long wavelengths, above 650nm.
Flow cytometry is a popular method for analyzing cells.
Flow cytometry is the detection and analysis of cancer cells.
Flow cytometry is done with fluorescent labeling or dye methods, where photons are
produced when the fluorophore is excited by one or more lasers.
Detectors are required to convert the light produced by the fluorescent dyes into a pulse
for the electronics.
Avalanche photodiodes are a way to detect excited fluorophores.
General purpose detectors include photodiodes and photomultiplier tubes.
The avalanche photodiode is used as a photodetector in fiber optic telecommunication,
as well as flow cytometry.
Photocurrent is another way of describing the electrical current that is generated from
photons, as in flux cytometry.
The production of photocurrent is required for the analysis and interpretation of results
of flow cytometry.
The avalanche photodiodes function like a regular photodiode.
When a photon is provoked and the photodiode is hit, the atoms of the detector ionize in
an electron and in a hole inside the photodiode, in the prostration region.
Unlike regular photodiodes, avalanche photodiodes have an intrinsic gain due to their
silicon atoms.
In the prostration region, there is an ionization of the impact of silicone atoms, creating
new charge carriers.
The reverse-polarization voltage means that avalanche photodiodes typically operate in
linear mode but tilting the photodiode above the dividing voltage can allow it to
function in Geiger mode.
Avalanche photodiodes have typical additional noise values of around 3.5.
Silicone photomultiplier tubes have the additional noise of around 1.1-1.2.
Compared to photomultiplier tubes, avalanche photodiodes have an internal gain more.
Quantum efficiency is a measure of how many photons were collected at the
photoreactive end compared to the number of charge carriers collected at the terminal
end.
Avalanche photodiodes have a higher quantum efficiency than other detectors such as
photomultiplier tubes.
The higher quantum efficiency of avalanche photodiodes lowers coefficients of
variation in the collected data.
However, many avalanche photodiodes have smaller active areas, which means that the
optical system needs to be aligned to prevent signal loss.
The sensitivity of avalanche photodiodes differs across the active area, being more
sensitive in the center.
Many materials, including silicon, germanium and other III-V elements, have been used
to manufacture SPADs for the wide variety of applications that now use the
uncontrolled avalanche process in CMOS manufacturing technologies to detect single
photon at dedicated wavelengths.
It was found that the best detection is coherent detection - homodynamic, however,
more signal gain is lost and is more complex.
Avalanche Gain Change
The photons resulting from the avalanche process give rise to an internal current with a
certain gain , through the effect of impact by ionization.
A photon together with an electron can generate a secondary electron-hole pair,
contributing to the total current and, consequently, to the increase in noise.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The advantage of APD photodiodes in relation to PINs is the high gain that this
provides in electro-optical conversion.
The disadvantages of APD compared to the PIN are the limitation of the receiver's
performance due to quantum noise; more complex structure; they need higher inverse
voltages; high sensitivity to external conditions.
Quantum efficiency
It is the quotient between the number of electron-hole pairs generated by each incident
photon.
Some of the incident photons do not create an electron-hole pair.
The responsiveness (R) quantifies this effect and increases the lower the frequency used
in a PIN type photodetector, the quantum efficiency is less than 1.
The quantum efficiency of a PIN photodiode is given considering the incident optical
power as , a PIN type photodetector with a certain quantum efficiency and certain
responsiveness, and existence of a current in the photodetector , being given by:
• = electron-hole rate;
• / / ℎ = incident photon rate.
Quantum noise
It is the noise coming from the current produced by the photodiodes, shot noise.
This noise that appears at the output of the emitter has a normal distribution and comes
from fluctuations in the optical power.
Dark current noise
This noise is a source of error caused by the spontaneous generation of electron-hole
pairs, however, it is neglected, since the detection of bits “0” and “1” occurs at the peak
of power.
This noise is divided into bulk dark current noise and surface leakage current noise.
Thermal noise
It is the noise from the movement of the electrons because of the temperature of the
component.
When the current from the photodiodes is applied, noise is inevitably added.
Thermal and quantum noise are the noises that cause further degradation of the system.
Coherent Detection and Direct Detection
The direct detection receiver does not depend on the phase or frequency of the signal,
the receiver collects and identifies the photons received, where each photon is converted
into electrical current.
The noise is minimized, in order to also distinguish the noise of bit “0” and bit “1”.
In summary, for example, a Si APD NIR and UV/VIS Si with an active area diameter of
1.0mm and a spectral response of 400-1000nm would have these characteristics:
• Photodiode: An electro-optic component comprised of two electrodes in a
semiconductor material where the reverse current varies with illumination. It
detects optical power and converts optical power to electrical power.
• Breakdown Voltage (BDV): The point at which the detector begins to behave as
a conductor. Operating a photodiode at or above its breakdown voltage will
damage the device.
• Shunt Resistance: The effective resistance of a photodiode. It represents the
slope of the I-V curve at the origin (V = 0).
• Amplifiers: An electro-optical device for increasing the incident signal from a
photodiode, photmultiplier, or similar current/voltage source.
• Capacitance: A property that measures the ability of a conductor to hold
electrical charge, measured in farads (F). Junction capacitance is related to the
rise time of the photodiode. The smaller the capacitance, the shorter the rise
time, and vice versa.
• Detectivity: A measure of the detecting ability or sensitivity of a photodiode.
The reciprocal of noise equivalent power (NEP).
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