Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Photodetection circuit having at least one counter operative in response to a mode switching circuit and operating method thereof
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Application No.: US15318373Application Date: 2014-07-02
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Publication No.: US10012534B2Publication Date: 2018-07-03
- Inventor: Andreas G. Andreou , Joseph H. Lin , Philippe O. Pouliquen , Charbel G. Rizk
- Applicant: The Johns Hopkins University
- Applicant Address: US MD Baltimore
- Assignee: The Johns Hopkins University
- Current Assignee: The Johns Hopkins University
- Current Assignee Address: US MD Baltimore
- Agent Noah J. Hayward
- International Application: PCT/US2014/045178 WO 20140702
- International Announcement: WO2016/003451 WO 20160107
- Main IPC: G01J1/44
- IPC: G01J1/44 ; H01L31/02 ; H01L31/107 ; H01L31/0352

Abstract:
A photodetection circuit includes an avalanche photodiode and a mode switching circuit that may be configured to selectively switch an operating mode of the photodetection circuit between linear mode and Geiger mode. The photodetection circuit may further include a quenching circuit configured to quench and reset the avalanche photodiode in response to an avalanche event when the photodetection circuit is operated in Geiger mode. The photodetection circuit may additionally include an integration circuit configured to integrate photocurrent output by the photodiode and generate integrated charge units when the photodetection circuit is operated in linear mode. The photodetection circuit may also include a counter configured to count pulses output by the avalanche photodiode when the photodetection circuit is operated in Geiger mode and to count integrated charge units generated by the integration circuit when the photodetection circuit is operated in linear mode.
Public/Granted literature
- US20170131143A1 PHOTODETECTION CIRCUIT AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF Public/Granted day:2017-05-11
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