Application of CMOS Technology to Silicon Photomultiplier Sensors

D’Ascenzo, N.; Zhang, Xi; Xie, Qingguo

doi:10.3390/s17102204

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…In recent years, we have witnessed an improvement both in the development of dedicated SiPM technology based on the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process [ 51 , 52 ] and in the realization of related high bandwidth digital readout electronics for PET [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. As a possible solution to the sampling-rate challenge, we have previously proposed a multi voltage threshold (MVT) sampling method that takes samples of a pulse with respect to a set of reference voltages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Digital Plug and Imaging Sensor for a Proton Therapy Monitoring System Based on Positron Emission Tomography

D’Ascenzo

Gao

Antonecchia

et al. 2018

Sensors

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One of the most challenging areas of sensor development for nuclear medicine is the design of proton therapy monitoring systems. Sensors are operated in a high detection rate regime in beam-on conditions. We realized a prototype of a monitoring system for proton therapy based on the technique of positron emission tomography. We used the Plug and Imaging (P&I) technology in this application. This sensing system includes LYSO/silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) detection elements, fast digital multi voltage threshold (MVT) readout electronics and dedicated image reconstruction algorithms. In this paper, we show that the P&I sensor system has a uniform response and is controllable in the experimental conditions of the proton therapy room. The prototype of PET monitoring device based on the P&I sensor system has an intrinsic experimental spatial resolution of approximately 3 mm (FWHM), obtained operating the prototype both during the beam irradiation and right after it. The count-rate performance of the P&I sensor approaches 5 Mcps and allows the collection of relevant statistics for the nuclide analysis. The measurement of both the half life and the relative abundance of the positron emitters generated in the target volume through irradiation of 1010 protons in approximately 15 s is performed with 0.5% and 5% accuracy, respectively.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Digital Plug and Imaging Sensor for a Proton Therapy Monitoring System Based on Positron Emission Tomography

D’Ascenzo

Gao

Antonecchia

et al. 2018

Sensors

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“…In this work, we have developed and characterized novel SiPMs in a 0.16 µm–BCD technology. Table 1 summarizes the performance of the fabricated SiPMs and compares it to the best commercially-available SiPMs (e.g., from SensL [ 20 ], Hamamatsu [ 21 ], AdvanSiD [ 22 ], Excelitas [ 23 ], Broadcom [ 24 ] and Ketek [ 25 ]), to the CMOS analog SiPM reported in [ 7 ] and to the BCD analog SiPM reported in [ 8 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Commercially-available SiPMs exploit custom fabrication technologies for optimizing their performance. However, efforts are underway to fabricate SiPMs in CMOS [ 7 ] and BCD [ 8 ] technologies, aiming at cost-effective systems-on-chip (SoC) based on SiPM detectors. Finally, digital SiPMs (dSiPMs), where each pixel integrates an active quenching circuit and provides a digital output to on-chip digital processing electronics, have been demonstrated [ 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

0.16 µm–BCD Silicon Photomultipliers with Sharp Timing Response and Reduced Correlated Noise

Sanzaro

Signorelli

Gattari

et al. 2018

Sensors

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Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have improved significantly over the last years and now are widely employed in many different applications. However, the custom fabrication technologies exploited for commercial SiPMs do not allow the integration of any additional electronics, e.g., on-chip readout and analog (or digital) processing circuitry. In this paper, we present the design and characterization of two microelectronics-compatible SiPMs fabricated in a 0.16 µm–BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) technology, with 0.67 mm × 0.67 mm total area, 10 × 10 square pixels and 53% fill-factor (FF). The photon detection efficiency (PDE) surpasses 33% (FF included), with a dark-count rate (DCR) of 330 kcps. Although DCR density is worse than that of state-of-the-art SiPMs, the proposed fabrication technology enables the development of cost-effective systems-on-chip (SoC) based on SiPM detectors. Furthermore, correlated noise components, i.e., afterpulsing and optical crosstalk, and photon timing response are comparable to those of best-in-class commercial SiPMs.

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“…The design follows the guidelines already presented in [35]. The cross-section of a sensitive cell of the SiPM is shown on Fig.…”

Section: A Device Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several tests of SiPM and SiPM-like detection structures were reported in the literature using 0.8 μm [11]- [19], 0.7 μm [20], 0.5 μm [21], [22], 0.35 μm [23]- [34], 0.18 μm [6], [35]- [38], 0.15 μm [39], 0.13 μm [40]- [45], 0.09 μm [46], [47] CMOS processes. Avalanche diode structures compatible with standard nanometer scale CMOS technology [48] and based on SiGe [49] are also being studied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silicon Photomultipliers With Area Up to 9 mm² in a 0.35-$\mu$ m CMOS Process

Liang

D’Ascenzo

Brockherde

et al. 2019

IEEE J. Electron Devices Soc.

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Silicon photomultipliers produced using standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes are at the basis of modern applications of sensors for weak photon fluxes. They allow in fact to integrate transistor-based electronic components within sensors and provide intelligent read-out strategies. In this paper, we investigate the scalability of a 0.35-μm CMOS process to large area devices. We report the design and characterization of SiPMs with a total area of 1, 4, and 9 mm 2 . Cross talk, photon detection efficiency at 420 nm, gain at 2.5 V overvoltage and breakdown voltage temperature coefficient do not depend on the total area of the sensor and are 10%, 35%, 2.5 × 10 6 , and 35 mV/K, respectively. The dark count rate scales with the total area of the device as 180 kHz/mm 2 . The total output capacitance, the decay time of the single photon signal, and the single photon time resolution depend on the area of the device. We obtain a capacitance of 66.9, 270.2, and 554.0 pF, a decay time of (27.1±0.1) ns, (50.8±0.1) ns, and (78.2±0.1) ns and a single photon time resolution of (77.97±0.51) ps, (201.67 ± 0.98) ps, and (282.28 ± 0.86) ps for the 1, 4, and 9 mm 2 SiPMs, respectively.INDEX TERMS Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), avalanche breakdown structures, CMOS, sensors for brain positron emission tomography.

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Application of CMOS Technology to Silicon Photomultiplier Sensors

Cited by 14 publications

References 61 publications

New Digital Plug and Imaging Sensor for a Proton Therapy Monitoring System Based on Positron Emission Tomography

New Digital Plug and Imaging Sensor for a Proton Therapy Monitoring System Based on Positron Emission Tomography

0.16 µm–BCD Silicon Photomultipliers with Sharp Timing Response and Reduced Correlated Noise

Silicon Photomultipliers With Area Up to 9 mm² in a 0.35-$\mu$ m CMOS Process

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Application of CMOS Technology to Silicon Photomultiplier Sensors

Cited by 14 publications

References 61 publications

New Digital Plug and Imaging Sensor for a Proton Therapy Monitoring System Based on Positron Emission Tomography

New Digital Plug and Imaging Sensor for a Proton Therapy Monitoring System Based on Positron Emission Tomography

0.16 µm–BCD Silicon Photomultipliers with Sharp Timing Response and Reduced Correlated Noise

Silicon Photomultipliers With Area Up to 9 mm2 in a 0.35-$\mu$ m CMOS Process

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Product

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Silicon Photomultipliers With Area Up to 9 mm² in a 0.35-$\mu$ m CMOS Process