Design and performance of single photon APD focal plane arrays for 3-D LADAR imaging

Mark A. Itzler; Mark Entwistle; Mark Owens; Ketan Patel; Xudong Jiang; Krystyna Slomkowski; Sabbir Rangwala; Peter F. Zalud; Tom Senko; John Tower; Joseph Ferraro

doi:10.1117/12.864465

17 August 2010 Design and performance of single photon APD focal plane arrays for 3-D LADAR imaging

Mark A. Itzler, Mark Entwistle, Mark Owens, Ketan Patel, Xudong Jiang, Krystyna Slomkowski, Sabbir Rangwala, Peter F. Zalud, Tom Senko, John Tower, Joseph Ferraro

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7780, Detectors and Imaging Devices: Infrared, Focal Plane, Single Photon; 77801M (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.864465
Event: SPIE NanoScience + Engineering, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

×We describe the design, fabrication, and performance of focal plane arrays (FPAs) for use in 3-D LADAR imaging applications requiring single photon sensitivity. These 32 × 32 FPAs provide high-efficiency single photon sensitivity for three-dimensional LADAR imaging applications at 1064 nm. Our GmAPD arrays are designed using a planarpassivated avalanche photodiode device platform with buried p-n junctions that has demonstrated excellent performance uniformity, operational stability, and long-term reliability. The core of the FPA is a chip stack formed by hybridizing the GmAPD photodiode array to a custom CMOS read-out integrated circuit (ROIC) and attaching a precision-aligned GaP microlens array (MLA) to the back-illuminated detector array. Each ROIC pixel includes an active quenching circuit governing Geiger-mode operation of the corresponding avalanche photodiode pixel as well as a pseudo-random counter to capture per-pixel time-of-flight timestamps in each frame. The FPA has been designed to operate at frame rates as high as 186 kHz for 2 μs range gates. Effective single photon detection efficiencies as high as 40% (including all optical transmission and MLA losses) are achieved for dark count rates below 20 kHz. For these planar-geometry diffused-junction GmAPDs, isolation trenches are used to reduce crosstalk due to hot carrier luminescence effects during avalanche events, and we present details of the crosstalk performance for different operating conditions. Direct measurement of temporal probability distribution functions due to cumulative timing uncertainties of the GmAPDs and ROIC circuitry has demonstrated a FWHM timing jitter as low as 265 ps (standard deviation is ~100 ps).

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Mark A. Itzler, Mark Entwistle, Mark Owens, Ketan Patel, Xudong Jiang, Krystyna Slomkowski, Sabbir Rangwala, Peter F. Zalud, Tom Senko, John Tower, and Joseph Ferraro "Design and performance of single photon APD focal plane arrays for 3-D LADAR imaging", Proc. SPIE 7780, Detectors and Imaging Devices: Infrared, Focal Plane, Single Photon, 77801M (17 August 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.864465

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