Dead Time of Single Photon Avalanche Diodes

Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) is the new generation of Geiger-Muller counter device developed in semiconductor technology [S. Privitera et al. Sensors Journal, vol 8 Iss. 8 (2008) 4636; S. Tudisco et al. IEEE Sensors Journal vol 8 ISS 7-8 (2008) 1324; S. Cova et al. Applied Optics 35 (1996) 1956]. Physical dead time model and noise production process has been analyzed and their corrections have been performed [S.H. Lee, R.P. Gardner, M. Jae, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. B 263 (2007) 46]. We have been able to extract the real amount of incident photon rate up to 107cps using a device with 0.97μs total deadtime. We also developed the equation of the noise count rate vs incoming photon rate, supported by Montecarlo simulation and experimental data. We marked the difference between dark rate and noise count rate, and introduced the noise rate inside the hybrid deadtime equation used for SPAD device.