Research progress of negative feedback avalanche diode and its application

Negative feedback avalanche diode (NFAD) has the advantages of fast quenching speed, low afterpulsing and easy integration. It can be used in quantum communication, fluorescence spectrum detection, single-photon counting imaging and other applications. The research on NFAD devices and their application in single-photon detecting system has thus been of great significance. This paper describes the novel design of NFAD, and reviews the development and application of NFAD devices in recent years. By monolithically integrating a film resistance onto single photon avalanche diode (SPAD), the formed self-passive quenching circuit in NFAD brings about improvements in especially afterpulsing, and effectively enables photon number resolution. Further hybridizing active quenching circuit, the single-photon detection system composed of NFAD performs much better than that of conventional SPAD. NFAD demonstrates more practical application potential so that it will be much more powerfully developed in the future, as we prospect finally in this paper.