Patent ID: 7427741

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a biasing unit supplying a bias signal to a first avalanche photodiode and a second avalanche photodiode, the bias signal having a first level and a second level, the first level causing a multiplying effect and the second level causing a non-multiplying effect for the first and the second avalanche photodiodes; a smoothing unit smoothing the bias signal biasing the first avalanche photodiode into a smoothed bias signal; a current detecting unit detecting photocurrent from the second avalanche photodiode, with a multiplying current value corresponding to the multiplying bias level and a non-multiplying current value corresponding to the non-multiplying bias level; a multiplication factor calculating unit calculating a multiplication factor of the second avalanche photodiode based on the multiplying current value and the non-multiplying current value; and a control unit controlling the first level of the bias signal based on the calculated multiplication factor.