The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 07, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 05, 2001
Politecnico de Milano, Milan, IT;
Abstract
The invention concerns an output circuit for extracting the avalanche pulse produced by an avalanche photodiode for single photon detection (Single Photon Avalanche Diode, SPAD), which makes possible to detect and measure with the best possible precision the time of arrival of an incident photon on the surface of said SPAD. The circuit is built with a coupling network, connected to a terminal of said SPAD biased at high voltage and a comparator. Said network is designed so that the differentiation time constant, introduced by said block, is less than the total duration of the avalanche current pulse, but longer than the risetime of said pulse (FIG. and FIG. ). The circuit object of the invention has the virtue of being usable in all the circuit configurations for avalanche quenching in SPADs described in the technical and scientific literature.