Abstract
The silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is an established device of choice for a variety of applications, e.g. in time of flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET), lifetime fluorescence spectroscopy, distance measurements in LIDAR applications, astrophysics, quantum-cryptography and related applications as well as in high energy physics (HEP).To fully utilize the exceptional performances of the SiPM, in particular its sensitivity down to single photon detection, the dynamic range and its intrinsically fast timing properties, a qualitative description and understanding of the main SiPM parameters and properties is necessary. These analyses consider the structure and the electrical model of a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) and the integration in an array of SPADs, i.e. the SiPM. The discussion will include the front-end readout and the comparison between analog-SiPMs, where the array of SPADs is connected in parallel, and the digital SiPM, where each SPAD is read out and digitized by its own electronic channel.For several applications a further complete phenomenological view on SiPMs is necessary, defining several SiPM intrinsic parameters, i.e. gain fluctuation, afterpulsing, excess noise, dark count rate, prompt and delayed optical crosstalk, single photon time resolution (SPTR), photon detection effieciency (PDE) etc. These qualities of SiPMs influence directly and indirectly the time and energy resolution, for example in PET and HEP. This complete overview of all parameters allows one to draw solid conclusions on how best performances can be achieved for the various needs of the different applications.
Highlights
The silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is a solid state photodetector made of an array of hundreds or thousands of integrated single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs), called microcells or pixels (Renker and Lorenz 2006, Renker and Lorenz 2009, Buzhan et al 2003, Golovin and Saveliev 2004, Herbert et al 2006)
In this sense the analog SiPM allows one to count the number of SPADs fired by integrating the charge in time, which is proportional to the number of photons detected
The contribution from photostatistics at zero dark count rate (DCR) is related to the stochastic fluctuations in the time-of-arrival of photons detected at the SiPM and is well known to be inversely correlated to the square root of the number of photoelectrons (Nphe), i.e. σtphot ∝ 1/Nphe
Summary
Keywords: SiPM, SPAD, Geiger mode avalanche, timing, TOF-PET, HEP, solid state photon detector Original Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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