Silicon photomultiplier

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kandrey89 (talk | contribs) at 01:35, 16 March 2014 (updated specifications based on SiPM sensor characterization work done on multiple devices from multiple manufacturers at UC Santa Cruz). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

One of the first SiPM produced by FBK research center (formerly IRST) located in Trento – Italy. See http://www.fbk.eu and http://memsrad.fbk.eu/en/home.

Silicon photomultipliers, often called "SiPM" in the literature, are Silicon single photon sensitive devices built from an avalanche photodiode (APD) array on common Si substrate. The idea behind this device is the detection of single photon events in sequentially connected Si APDs. The dimension of each single APD can vary from 20 to 100 micrometres, and their density can be up to 1000 per square millimeter. Every APD in SiPM operates in Geiger-mode and is coupled with the others by a polysilicon quenching resistor. Although the device works in digital/switching mode, the SiPM is an analog device because all the microcells are read in parallel making it possible to generate signals within a dynamic range from a single photon to 1000 photons for just a single square millimeter area device. The supply voltage (Vb) depends on APD technology used, and typically varies between 20 V and 100 V, thus being from 15 to 75 times lower than the voltage required for a traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) operation.

Typical specs for a SiPM:

  1. Photo detection efficiency (PDE) ranges from 20-50% depending on device and wavelength, being similar to a traditional PMT
  2. Gain (G) is also similar to a PMT being approx. 106.
  3. G vs Vb dependence is linear, does not follow a power law like in the case of PMTs
  4. Timing jitter is optimized to have a photon arrival time resolution of about 100 ps
  5. Signal decay time is inversely proportional to square root of photoelectrons number within an excitation event
  6. The signal parameters are practically independent of external magnetic fields, in contrary to vacuum PMTs
  7. Small dimensions permits extremely compact, light and robust mechanical design

SiPM for medical imaging:

They are attractive candidates for the replacement of the conventional PMT in PET and SPECT imaging since they provide high gain with low voltage and fast response, they are very compact and magnetic resonance compatible. Nevertheless, there are still several challenges, for example, SiPM requires optimization for larger matrices [3], signal amplification and digitization.

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