Recent progress of SiC UV single photon counting avalanche photodiodes

Abstract

4H-SiC single photon counting avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) are prior devices for weak ultraviolet (UV) signal detection with the advantages of small size, low leakage current, high avalanche multiplication gain, and high quantum efficiency, which benefit from the large bandgap energy, high carrier drift velocity and excellent physical stability of 4H-SiC semiconductor material. UV detectors are widely used in many key applications, such as missile plume detection, corona discharge, UV astronomy, and biological and chemical agent detection. In this paper, we will describe basic concepts and review recent results on device design, process development, and basic characterizations of 4H-SiC avalanche photodiodes. Several promising device structures and uniformity of avalanche multiplication are discussed, which are important for achieving high performance of 4H-SiC UV SPADs.

Characterization of Impact Ionization Coefficient of ZnO Based on a p-Si/i-ZnO/n-AZO Avalanche Photodiode

“…When the detection spectral range enters the UV region, we need to utilize wide band gap materials as the absorption layer. Therefore, 4H-SiC [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], GaN [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]-based UV APDs have been demonstrated and investigated in recent years. ZnO is also an attractive wide band gap semiconductor that has a lot of advantages such as high exciton binding energy, direct band gap, low cost, ease of fabrication, and environmental friendliness [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Free-running 4H-SiC single-photon detector with ultralow afterpulse probability at 266 nm

“…However, such devices suffer some disadvantages such as requiring vacuum tube and relatively large size. Nevertheless, 4H-SiC singlephoton avalanche diodes (SPADs) have been considering as an alternative technology to implement UVSPD [6][7][8][9][10] , which might be similar to other semiconductor devices of SPADs in the visible band and the infrared band.…”