High-volume silicon photomultiplier production, performance, and reliability

Abstract

This publication details CMOS foundry fabrication, reliability stress assessment, and packaged sen- sor test results obtained during qualification of the SensL B-Series silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). SiPM sensors with active-area dimensions of 1, 3, and 6 mm were fabricated and tested to provide a comprehensive review of SiPM performance highlighted by fast output rise times of 300 ps and photon detection efficiency of greater than 41%, combined with low afterpulsing and crosstalk. Measurements important for medical imaging positron emis- sion tomography systems that rely on time-of-flight detectors were completed. Results with LSYO:Ce scintillation crystals of 3 × 3 × 20 mm 3 demonstrated a 225 � 2-ps coincidence resolving time (CRT), and the fast output is shown to allow for simultaneous acquisition of CRT and energy resolution. The wafer level test results from ∼150 k 3-mm SiPM are shown to demonstrate a mean breakdown voltage value of 24.69 V with a standard deviation of 0.073 V. The SiPM output optical uniformity is shown to be � 10% at a single supply voltage of 29.5 V. Finally, reliability stress assessment to Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) industry standards is detailed and shown to have been completed with all SiPM passing. This is the first qualification and reliability stress assessment program run to industry standards that has been reported on SiPM.©2014 Society