Single photon avalanche diode dark count rate modelling considering non-local avalanche probability

Abstract This article deals with the modeling and analysis of the dark count rate (DCR) of single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) in two models of local and non-local electric field. In the non-local electric field models, the avalanche probability and band-to-band tunneling rate are different from the local models. DCR output is evaluated in two different complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes, of 0.15 μm and 0.18 μm. The non-local avalanche probability is based on considering a non-local dependence of impact ionization on the electric field. At high electric fields, the local model predicts the ionization distance to be negligible and therefore the avalanche probability was not calculated accurately. The results show that the non-local model is closer to the data obtained from the experiment than the local model.