A new Silicon SPAD with improved Red Efficiency and 100 ps timing resolution

Many applications require high performance Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPAD) either as single pixels or as small arrays of detectors. Although currently available silicon devices reached remarkable performance, further improvements are needed in order to meet the requirements of most demanding time-resolved techniques. In particular, one of the most significant challenges today is the development of a planar silicon technology, compatible with the fabrication of arrays, capable of reaching a high Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE) in the near infrared region while maintaining a good temporal resolution. We will present a new device structure aimed at attaining the aforementioned performances. In particular, experimental characterization showed a significant increase in the PDE with a remarkable value of 40% at 800nm; a photon timing jitter as low as 93ps FWHM has been also attained, while other device performances, such as Dark Count Rate (DCR) and Afterpulsing Probability (AP) are essentially unchanged, compared to classical thin SPAD. Being planar, the new technology is also intrinsically compatible with the fabrication of arrays of detectors.