Silicon photomultiplier

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 25 V and 70 V, thus being from 30 to 50 times lower than the voltage required for a traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) operation. SiPM has been invented in Russia in Moscow Engineering Physics Institute [1 - 4]. This design idea was then used with some variations by SensL, Photonique, Hamamatsu, Voxtel Inc., STMicroelectronics and other companies (see the list of SiPM Manufacturers below).

Typical specs for a SiPM:

  1. Total quantum efficiency is about 20%, 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 on external magnetic fields, in contrary to vacuum PMTs
  7. Small dimensions permits extremely compact, light and robust mechanical design

References

External links

SiPM Manufacturers: