This paper proposes and designs a high speed detection circuit based on single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) for single photon detection. The circuit consists of SPADs, OPAMPs (operational amplifiers), AQRC (active quenching and charging circuit) and control logic. OP-AMPs are used for induction. AQRC provides rapid quenching and resetting for each SPAD. And the control logic determines the working sequence and the state of each SPAD. By making multiple SPADs work sequentially, not only fast detection is achieved, but also afterpulsing and dark count rate are reduced. Simulation shows that based on a high voltage 0.18 μm CMOS technology, the dead time of the system is only determined by the switching time between SPADs.