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A solid-state photodetector called a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is fundamentally connected to the fundamental behaviours of diodes and belongs to the same family as photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes (APDs).
A SPAD, like photodiodes and APDs, is based on a semiconductor p-n junction that can be lighted by a large section of the electromagnetic spectrum, including ultraviolet (UV), visible, and infrared wavelengths. This includes ionising radiation like gamma, x, beta, and alpha particles (IR).
In a SPAD, the reverse bias is sufficiently great that impact ionisation, a phenomena that can lead to the development of an avalanche current, happens.
Simply put, an atom’s electrons are knocked out of an atom when a photo-generated carrier is accelerated by the device’s electric field to a kinetic energy sufficient to outpace the material’s ionisation energy.
It only takes one photon-initiated carrier to start an enormous avalanche of current carriers that expands exponentially. Single photon detection by a SPAD results in countable, short-duration trigger pulses.
The Global Single Photon Avalanche Photodiode market accounted for $XX Billion in 2021 and is anticipated to reach $XX Billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of XX% from 2022 to 2030.
The APD210 from Menlo Systems is particularly suited for applications demanding the highest sensitivity for low level input signals.
It was initially created for the detection of the beat note signal between cw or pulsed lasers. An incredibly sensitive replacement for conventional PIN photodiodes can be found in the APD single photon photodiode series.
It is also quick enough for the nanosecond-scale characterization of pulsed solid-state lasers, for instance. A temperature compensation circuit, which modifies the 150 V DC bias to assure operating close to the breakdown voltage, is used to maintain high gain stability over the 10 °C to 40 °C temperature range.
