Recovery time of silicon photomultiplier with epitaxial quenching resistors

Abstract

The silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is a promising semiconductor device for low-level light detection. The recovery time, or the photon-counting rate of the SiPM is essential for high-flux photon detection in such applications as photon counting computer tomography (CT). A SiPM with epitaxial quenching resistors (EQR SiPM) has advantages in fabricating small APD microcells connected in series with lower quenching resistors, therefore, APD cells with a low RC time constant and a short recovery time can be expected. In this report, the recovery time of EQR SiPM has been investigated using both the double light pulse method and the waveform analysis method. The results show that the recovery time of EQR SiPM is strongly dependent on the size of the active area and the number of fired pixels. For a 3 × 3 mm2 device, while total about 90,000 pixels were fired, the recovery time was 31.1 ± 1.8 ns; while fired pixels were controlled to about 2000, the recovery time decreased significantly to 6.5 ± 0.4 ns; and the recovery time of one fired pixel was 3.1 ± 0.2 ns. For 1.4 × 1.4 mm2 device, the recovery time was 15.2 ± 0.5 ns, while a total of about 20,000 pixels were fired. Effects that may affect the recovery time of the SiPM, including strength of the pulse light, signal transmission time delay, and the readout electronics are discussed.