152-dB Dynamic Range With a Large-Area Custom-Technology Single-Photon Avalanche Diode

In this letter, we demonstrate a dynamic range as high as 152 dB with a detection head based on a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD). This result has been attained by exploiting two key factors: on one hand, the low dark count rate (9 cps) of a custom-technology SPAD; and on the other hand, the maximum count rate (120 Mcps) achievable with a new generation active quenching circuit and an optimized assembly of the system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest dynamic range reported so far in the literature for a SPAD. Even more important, this value has been attained without sacrificing other detector parameters, such as active area diameter (50 μm), photon detection efficiency (50% at 550-nm wavelength), and afterpulsing probability (2%).