A new planar structure for silicon single-photon-counting detectors leads to the doubling of detector efficiency while maintaining picosecond timing resolution, low dark counts, and low power consumption. In the April 2005 issue of Laser Focus World, OptoElectronic Components (OEC) and colleagues presented developments from Micro Photon Devices (MPD; Bolzano, Italy) on a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible single-photon-counting detector based on a custom planar process. This type of detector offered picosecond timing resolution and low power consumption, making it very robust and well-suited for applications requiring fast timing resolution. However, when compared to the photon-counting detectors that use high-resistivity "thick" silicon and a dedicated process, planar photon-counting detectors have lower detection efficiency, especially in the near-infrared region.
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