LIGHT RECEIVING DEVICE WITH A PLURALITY OF AVALANCHE PHOTODIODES AND METHOD FOR LIGHT DETECTION

摘要

There is provided a light receiver (22) having a plurality of avalanche photodiode elements (24) each biased with a bias above a breakdown voltage and thus operated in a Geiger mode to induce a Geiger current when received, the avalanche photodiode elements (24) having a plurality Form groups (72 ₁ -72 _n ). In this case, the light receiver (22) a plurality of bias terminals (70a-c) with different bias voltages to supply the avalanche photodiode elements (24) of a group (72 ₁ -72 _n ) each with one of the different bias voltages. Alternatively, the light receiver (22) has a multiplicity of read-out circuits (60, 62, 64) which are each assigned to a group (72 ₁ -72 _n ) of avalanche photodiode elements (24) and which each have a measurement path (60) and a blanking path (FIG. 64) as well as a switch element (62) in order to selectively supply the Geiger current or a measuring current corresponding to the Geiger current to the measuring path (60) or to the blanking path (64).