Silicon Photomultipliers for High-Performance Scintillation Crystal Readout Applications

Low power embedded processing of scintillation events with silicon photo multipliers

“…SiPMs are constructed with a grid array of avalanche photo diodes (APDs) cells that are then biased in the Geiger mode range at between 25 V and 30 V, depending on the gain and noise requirements of a system. Upon photon interaction with a SiPM cell, it will breakdown causing a flow of electrical current; then with multiple photons more cells breakdown resulting in a proportional electrical pulse signal [2], as illustrated in Figure 1. The low SiPM bias voltage requirement compared to 800 V, or more, for a Photo Multiplier Tube (PMT), as well as a small physical size ranging from 1 mm² to 6 mm² as with the SensL devices [3] enables compact battery powered devices to be developed [4].…”