The impact of long dead time on the photocount distribution of SPAD receivers

Elham Sarbazi; Majid Safari; Harald Haas

doi:10.1109/GLOCOM.2018.8647814

The impact of long dead time on the photocount distribution of SPAD receivers

Elham Sarbazi, Majid Safari, Harald Haas

Electronic And Electrical Engineering

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) receiver can provide a significantly improved detection sensitivity over conventional photodiodes. However, upon detecting a photon, the SPAD receiver is unable to respond to subsequent incident photons for a certain period of time called dead time. When the SPAD receiver is counting in consecutive intervals and its dead time is relatively long compared to the counting interval, the dead time in one interval may overlap the next intervals, causing counting losses in those intervals. In this paper, the photocount statistics of an active quenching SPAD receiver with a long dead time is investigated. While detecting in consecutive time intervals, the SPAD receiver can be modeled as a Markov chain. It is shown that the SPAD experiences a transient period, before eventually reaching its steady state. The duration of the transient period increases with both the dead time and the signal photon rate. The bit error performance of the system with an on-off keying (OOK) modulated signal is also evaluated. Our results show that the SPAD's dead time significantly degrades the error performance of high data rate links.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference, GLOBECOM 2018 - Proceedings
Place of Publication	Piscataway, NJ
Publisher	IEEE
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9781538647271
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/GLOCOM.2018.8647814
Publication status	Published - 21 Feb 2019
Event	2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference, GLOBECOM 2018 - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Duration: 9 Dec 2018 → 13 Dec 2018

Conference

Conference	2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference, GLOBECOM 2018
Country/Territory	United Arab Emirates
City	Abu Dhabi
Period	9/12/18 → 13/12/18

Funding

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Professor Haas gratefully acknowledges the support of this research by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under an Established Career Fellowship grant, EP/R007101/1. He also acknowledges the financial support of his research by the Wolfson Foundation and the Royal Society.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

active quenching
blocking probability
dead time
inter-symbol interference (ISI)
Markov process
single photon avalanche diode (SPAD)
avalanche photodiodes
optical modulation
photodetectors

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10.1109/GLOCOM.2018.8647814

Cite this

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title = "The impact of long dead time on the photocount distribution of SPAD receivers",

abstract = "A single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) receiver can provide a significantly improved detection sensitivity over conventional photodiodes. However, upon detecting a photon, the SPAD receiver is unable to respond to subsequent incident photons for a certain period of time called dead time. When the SPAD receiver is counting in consecutive intervals and its dead time is relatively long compared to the counting interval, the dead time in one interval may overlap the next intervals, causing counting losses in those intervals. In this paper, the photocount statistics of an active quenching SPAD receiver with a long dead time is investigated. While detecting in consecutive time intervals, the SPAD receiver can be modeled as a Markov chain. It is shown that the SPAD experiences a transient period, before eventually reaching its steady state. The duration of the transient period increases with both the dead time and the signal photon rate. The bit error performance of the system with an on-off keying (OOK) modulated signal is also evaluated. Our results show that the SPAD's dead time significantly degrades the error performance of high data rate links.",

keywords = "active quenching, blocking probability, dead time, inter-symbol interference (ISI), Markov process, single photon avalanche diode (SPAD), avalanche photodiodes, optical modulation, photodetectors",

author = "Elham Sarbazi and Majid Safari and Harald Haas",

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AU - Sarbazi, Elham

AU - Safari, Majid

AU - Haas, Harald

PY - 2019/2/21

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N2 - A single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) receiver can provide a significantly improved detection sensitivity over conventional photodiodes. However, upon detecting a photon, the SPAD receiver is unable to respond to subsequent incident photons for a certain period of time called dead time. When the SPAD receiver is counting in consecutive intervals and its dead time is relatively long compared to the counting interval, the dead time in one interval may overlap the next intervals, causing counting losses in those intervals. In this paper, the photocount statistics of an active quenching SPAD receiver with a long dead time is investigated. While detecting in consecutive time intervals, the SPAD receiver can be modeled as a Markov chain. It is shown that the SPAD experiences a transient period, before eventually reaching its steady state. The duration of the transient period increases with both the dead time and the signal photon rate. The bit error performance of the system with an on-off keying (OOK) modulated signal is also evaluated. Our results show that the SPAD's dead time significantly degrades the error performance of high data rate links.

AB - A single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) receiver can provide a significantly improved detection sensitivity over conventional photodiodes. However, upon detecting a photon, the SPAD receiver is unable to respond to subsequent incident photons for a certain period of time called dead time. When the SPAD receiver is counting in consecutive intervals and its dead time is relatively long compared to the counting interval, the dead time in one interval may overlap the next intervals, causing counting losses in those intervals. In this paper, the photocount statistics of an active quenching SPAD receiver with a long dead time is investigated. While detecting in consecutive time intervals, the SPAD receiver can be modeled as a Markov chain. It is shown that the SPAD experiences a transient period, before eventually reaching its steady state. The duration of the transient period increases with both the dead time and the signal photon rate. The bit error performance of the system with an on-off keying (OOK) modulated signal is also evaluated. Our results show that the SPAD's dead time significantly degrades the error performance of high data rate links.

KW - active quenching

KW - blocking probability

KW - dead time

KW - inter-symbol interference (ISI)

KW - Markov process

KW - single photon avalanche diode (SPAD)

KW - avalanche photodiodes

KW - optical modulation

KW - photodetectors

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DO - 10.1109/GLOCOM.2018.8647814

M3 - Conference contribution book

AN - SCOPUS:85063500653

BT - 2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference, GLOBECOM 2018 - Proceedings

PB - IEEE

CY - Piscataway, NJ

T2 - 2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference, GLOBECOM 2018

Y2 - 9 December 2018 through 13 December 2018

ER -

The impact of long dead time on the photocount distribution of SPAD receivers

Abstract

Conference

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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