Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 8;20(16):4428.
doi: 10.3390/s20164428.

Analytical Study of Front-End Circuits Coupled to Silicon Photomultipliers for Timing Performance Estimation under the Influence of Parasitic Components

Pietro Antonio Paolo Calò  1 , Savino Petrignani  1 , Michele Di Gioia  1 , Cristoforo Marzocca  1
Affiliations

Analytical Study of Front-End Circuits Coupled to Silicon Photomultipliers for Timing Performance Estimation under the Influence of Parasitic Components

Pietro Antonio Paolo Calò et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Full exploitation of the intrinsic fast timing capabilities of analog silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) requires suitable front-end electronics. Even a parasitic inductance of a few nH, associated to the interconnections between the SiPM and the preamplifier, can significantly degrade the steepness of the detector response, thus compromising the timing accuracy. In this work, we propose a simple analytic expression for the single-photon response of a SiPM coupled to the front-end electronics, as a function of the main parameters of the detector and the preamplifier, taking into account the parasitic inductance. The model is useful to evaluate the influence of each parameter of the system on the slope of its response and to guide the designer in the definition of the architecture and the specifications for the front-end electronics. The results provided by the model have been successfully compared with experimental measurements from a front-end circuit with variable configuration based on a bipolar junction transistor (BJT), coupled to a 3 × 3 mm2 SiPM stimulated by a fast-pulsed laser source.

Keywords: front-end electronics; silicon photomultiplier; single-photon response; timing accuracy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Equivalent electrical model of the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) coupled to a current-mode front-end.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The input section of the circuit in Figure 1, redrawn as the parallel of two admittances, Ydet and Ypar,in.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Model of the SiPM coupled to a voltage-mode front-end circuit.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Simplified block diagram of the system.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison between the waveforms Vout(t) obtained from Equations (9) (complete model) and (11) (approximate model). The inset shows the early part of the transient response.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Time derivatives of the response Vout (t): comparison between the complete model in Equation (9) and its approximation in Equation (11).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Slope of output pulses obtained with no series inductance and with a 10 nH inductance included in both the complete and approximate models.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Maximum slope of the leading edge of the output pulse for the current-mode approach (12), compared with its approximation (21), with Lpar = 10 nH, 40 nH, 70 nH, 100 nH, Cin = 0.5 pF and BW = 0.5 GHz.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Maximum slope of the leading edge of the output pulse for the voltage-mode approach (13) compared with its approximation (22), with Lpar = 10 nH, 40 nH, 70 nH, 100 nH, Cin = 0.5 pF, and BW = 0.5 GHz.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The current-mode (a) and voltage-mode (b) responses as functions of the input resistance when Lpar = 70 nH, Cin = 0.5 pF, and BW = 0.5 GHz, obtained using the complete model.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Two readout approaches: (a) a BJT in the common base configuration; (b) the same BJT in the common emitter configuration.
Figure 12
Figure 12
A voltage-mode preamplifier, based on an op-amp.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Pictures of (a) the printed circuit board used for the experiments and (b) the experimental setup in the dark box.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Examples of ‘golden’ pulse waveforms, obtained with L = 51 nH and different values of Rin.
Figure 15
Figure 15
An example of time derivative of a ‘golden’ pulse, obtained with L = 51 nH and Rin = 33 Ω.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Maximum slopes of the output pulse of the front-end as a function of the input resistance Rin for three values of parasitic inductance: comparison among measured data, proposed model predictions, and SPICE simulations.
Figure 17
Figure 17
Time jitter as a function of Rin and L. The light continuous curves are first order exponential fittings of the measured data points.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lamprou E., Aguilar A., Gonzalez-Montoro A., Monzo J., Canizares G., Vidal L.F., Hernandez L., Iranzo S., Marti R., Sanchez S., et al. Progress Report for an Accurate PET Detector Based on SiPMs and the TOFPET ASIC; Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC); Atlanta, GA, USA. 21–28 October 2017; pp. 1–3.
    1. Cozzi G., Busca P., Carminati M., Fiorini C., Montagnani G.L., Acerbi F., Gola A., Paternoster G., Piemonte C., Regazzoni V., et al. High-Resolution Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy With a SiPM-Based Detection Module for 1” and 2” LaBr3:Ce Readout. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 2018;65:645–655. doi: 10.1109/TNS.2017.2784238. - DOI
    1. Becker W. Advanced Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting Techniques. 1st ed. Springer; Berlin, Germany: 2005. Overview of Photon Counting Techniques.
    1. Wei L., Ho D., Yan W. Recent Advances in Fluorescence Lifetime Analytical Microsystems: Contact Optics and CMOS Time-Resolved Electronics. Sensors. 2017;17:2800. doi: 10.3390/s17122800. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adamo G., Busacca A. Time of Flight measurements via two LiDAR systems with SiPM and APD; Proceedings of the 2016 AEIT International Annual Conference (AEIT); Capri, Italy. 5–7 October 2016; pp. 1–5.

LinkOut - more resources