yakimaâ„¢ preliminary silicon photomultiplier

▪ High energy physics (HEP)

▪ PET scanning

▪ Scanning microarrays

▪ DNA sequencing

▪ Proteomics

▪ Confocal microscopy

▪ Nuclear Medicine

▪ Fluorescence l ifetime mea-surements

▪ Dynamic spectrometry

Applications

Features Yakima™ Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPMs)Thermoelectrically cooled SiPM in a TO-8 package

Model SQBF-EKAA Packaged SiPM

Voxtel Literature No. SQBF-EKAA, Version date: 06/2012 ©Voxtel makes no warranty or representation regarding its products’ specific application suitability and may make changes to the products described without notice.

SQBF SeriesYakima™ Preliminary Silicon Photomultiplier

Voxtel, Inc., 15985 NW Schendel Avenue, #200, Beaverton, OR 97006, www.voxtel- inc.com, T 971.223.5646, F 503.296.2862

▪ Weak l ight levels detection

▪ Very low dark current

▪ High speed (1ns rise time)

▪ 350-1100nm sensitivity

▪ Wide single-photon counting dynamic range (>30MHz)

▪ 3-Stage, thermoelectric-cooled, 6-pin TO-8 package

▪ TO-8 package with broad-band, double-sided, AR flat window, or a lensed cap to enhance coupling efficiency

▪ Small, compact and robust

▪ Temperature and voltage sta-bil ity

▪ High SNR when cooled to lower temperatures

The 1mm × 1mm SiPM provides high photon count ing rates and low dark count rates over the 350–1100nm spectral range. Perfor-mance is increased by reducing dark counts,using a 3-stage thermoelec-tr ic cooler (TEC) that provides a 110°C reduct ion from ambient tem-perature.

The SQBF-series SiPM is a photon-counting solid-state replacement for photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). SiPM devices are superior to PMTs in cost, size, mechanical durabil-ity, insensitivity to magnetic fields and low supply voltage require-ments. Low dark count rates with thermoelectric cooling, combined with extremely fast rise time and short recovery time, facilitate high performance operations of Voxtel’s SiPMs. In analog / linear mode, multi-photon detectors have an output signal that is proportional to the number of input photons, and in digital mode, have high-speed photon counters with a wide dy-namic range.

These properties make Voxtel's SiPM useful for detecting extremely weak light at the photon-counting level. SiPMs offer high performance for photon counting with the ad-vantages of high gain at low bias voltage, high photon detection ef-ficiency, highspeed response, wide dynamic range, superior time res-olution, wide spectral response range. Voxtel's SiPM is non-sen-sitive to magnetic fields, which makes it an excellent PMT replace-ment for a wide range of applica-tions in numerous fields.

A SiPM is an array of small area avalanche photodiodes (APDs) con-nected in parallel through a network of passive quenching resistors. Each pixel of the SiPM operates

independently in the Geiger mode, equivalent to passively quenched single-photon avalanche diodes (SPAD), and is thereby capable of generating an easily detectable pulse even from a single photon. The parallel connection sums the current when multiple pixels fire. Connecting the SiPM to a linear am-plifier and a multi-channel analyzer permits measurement of the num-ber of photons in a multi-photon pulse.

Since a SiPM is an array of small-area pixels combined to make a large active area, it ia both a both a small-area SPAD and a large area SPAD — high-speed photon count-ing with a large-area device, but no complex active quenching circuit. The SiPM can be used as a low-cost alternative to large-area SPADs in certain applications, e.g. in laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) mea-surements.

The SQBF-EKAA is sold as a self-contained detector package. SiPM chips are integrated with a 3-stage TEC in a TO-8 package. The photo-sensitive area of the SiPM chip con-tains 1024 SPAD pixels, in a 32 × 32 array measuring 1mm by 1mm. Also available in the Yakima series are bare die, as well as uncooled SiPMs in TO-18 packages.

Voxtel Literature No. SQBF-EKAA, Version date: 06/2012 © Voxtel makes no warranty or representation regarding its products’ specific application suitability and may make changes to the products described without notice.


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SQBF Series

M O D E L S Q B F - E K A AYa k i m a™ S e r i e s P h o t o m u l t i p l i e r S i P M s

1400

1200

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00 500100 200 300 400

Pedestal

1 p.e.

Cou

nts

ADC Channel #

–20 30–10 01 02 0Temperature (˚C )

–35

–36

–37

–38

–39

–40Brea

kdow

n Vo

ltage

(V BR

)

107 mV/˚C~

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k C

ount

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e (k

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0.2 × 106

0.3 × 106

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0.5 × 106

0.6 × 106

1 3 5 7 9

Overvoltage (V )

Gai

n

T = –20 °C

Gain v Overbias Breakdown Voltagev Temperature

Amplitude Distribution Dark Count v Overbias

Silicon Photomultiplier Preliminary Yakima™



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SQBF Series

M O D E L S Q B F - E K A A Ya k i m a™ S e r i e s P h o t o m u l t i p l i e r S i P M s

M e c h a n i c a l In f o r m a t i o n

0

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4005 00 6007 00 8009 00 1000

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0.113

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Ø 0.018

0.031

0.031 14

12 11 10 9

1.000 ± 0.025

0.390

0.296± 0.014

0.217

0.044

SiPM Plane

0.120Thermistor

0.010

Cap assembly not shown

TOP VIEW SIDE VIEW BOTTOM VIEW

A

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9 10 11 1291 01 11 2

Photon Detection Efficiency

Yakima™ Preliminary Silicon Photomultiplier



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SpecificationsParameter Typical Units Conditions

Sensitive Area 1 mm2

Interconnect Elements 1024 pixels 32 x 32 square

Breakdown Voltage (VBR) 36 V At -20°C

Over-Voltage Range 1-10 V At -20°C

Temperature Dependence of VBR 107 mV/°C

Pixel Gain 105-106 Depending on Overvoltage

Pixel Capacitance 10 fF

Dark Current <0.5 nAAt Room Temperature,

Just Before Breakdown

Dark Count Rate 50 kHz At -20°C and VBR +5V

Spectral Response Range 350-1100 nm

Photon Detection Efficiencyi >25% at λ = 500nm

Operating Temperature +30 to -25 °C

Pulse Width 2.2-3.2 nsFWHM; Typical Max

Pulse Width 4-6ns

Rise Time 1 ns Leading Edge

Fall Time 1.5 ns Trailing Edge

Single-Photon Counting

Dynamic Range>40 MHz Comparator Threshhold <1p.e.

TEC Cooling Time 10-12 s

i P D E I n c l u d e s c r o s s t a l k a n d a f t e r p u l s i n g

SQBF Series

M O D E L S Q B F - E K A AYa k i m a™ S e r i e s P h o t o m u l t i p l i e r S i P M s

Silicon Photomultiplier Preliminary Yakima™


SQBF Series


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O p e r a t i n g I n f o r m a t i o n

Figs. 1 and 2 show typical bias circuits and setups for high-speed single-photon counting and multi-photon counting (photon number resolving) applica-tions. To detect single photons, the noise-floor level of the measurement setup must be smaller than the output amplitude of pulses arising from single pho-tons (1 p.e. pulses).

Some of the commercially available low-noise, high-gain amplifiers are the EG&G Ortec VT120C and the Mini-Circuits ZFL-500LN and MAR-8ASM. An ex-ample of a commercially available low-noise charge-sensitive preamplifier is Amptek’s model A250.

Fig. 3 shows a typical output pulse obtained from the Fig. 2 setup. Typical rise/fall times are shown in Fig. 4. High-speed photon counting mode (Fig. 1) is suitable in applications with single photons, or where the probability of receiving two or more si-multaneous photons is negligible, such as the detec-tion of laser induced fluorescence (LIF) signals. With a maximum pulse width of 5ns, theoretically, the SiPM can count pulses up to a maximum frequency of 200MHz (photon-counting dynamic range). De-pending on the biasing components and processing electronics, these SiPMs attain a maximum non-sat-urated dynamic range of >40MHz. It should be

noted that the useful dynamic range achievable with the TE cooled SiPM (packaged in a TO-8), operated at low temperatures, is much higher than that of the un-cooled version (packaged in a TO-18). This is be-cause the TE cooled version can be operated at much higher over-voltages without significantly increasing the dark count rate. These SiPMs can replace large-area single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) where relatively high dark count rate is not the limiting factor, such as in DNA sequencing, where the back-ground count rate from the sequencing system is comparable to or higher than the SiPM’s dark count rate.

The main advantage of Voxtel’s SiPM over large-area SPAD is that it can achieve the same or better dynamic range with a large-area device without us-ing rather complex active quenching circuits. Maxi-mum count rates with passively quenched large-area SPADs are in the range of few hundred kHz.

To measure very slow optical signals over longer periods of time, a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) must be used.

M O D E L S Q B F - E K A A Ya k i m a™ S e r i e s P h o t o m u l t i p l i e r S i P M s

Oscilloscope

MCA

Pulse Shaper

SiPMC2hv

1

C1

(A)10K

R1

2

0.1u

R2

C2hv

C1R1

10K (A)

50 ohm

Oscilloscope

Pulse Counter

1

2

VTH < 1 p.e

V1

+

_SiPM

0.1u

1n-100n

Fig.1 Typical setup

for high-speed pho-

ton counting

Fig.2 Typical setup

for multi-channel

photon counting

Fig.3 Typical

output pulse

Fig.4 Typical

rise and fal l

t imes

Yakima™ Preliminary Silicon Photomultiplier

yakimaâ„¢ preliminary silicon photomultiplier

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