Silicon photomultipliers – a fast and sensitive solution to the challenge of detecting, timing and measuring extremely weak light. Broadcom’s latest products take accuracy and efficiency to a new level.
Next Generation Silicon Photomultipliers – Extreme Low Light Detection Sensors
Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) offer a fast and sensitive solution to the challenge of detecting, timing and measuring extremely weak light, even down to single photon level. The latest products from Broadcom take accuracy and efficiency to a new level.
SiPMs have the advantage over traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) in a number of critical areas:
- Low and tightly controlled breakdown voltage
- Low temperature dependence of breakdown voltage
- High Gain and signal to noise ratio
- Magnetic field immunity
- MRI compatible packaging
- No damage from high light/ambient light
SiPMs are based on multiple micro avalanche photodiodes. When these are connected in parallel with common anode and cathode contacts the combination is referred to as a single photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD), AKA microcell. Each SiPM comprises many thousands of SPADs.
SiPMs are both compact and as a solid-state device, inherently robust. This small size and ruggedness makes them particularly suitable for OEM and handheld use.
Applications in which SiPMs play a vital role include:
- Medical imaging (including X-ray, CT, molecular imaging.)
- Biomedical (such as DNA sequencing, flow cytometry and immunoassay analysis.)
- Safety and security (radiation detection and spectroscopy)
- 3D ranging (lidar)
- High-energy physics experiments
Superlative Sensitivity
The latest generation of SiPMs from Broadcom, as supplied by AP Technologies, are based on NUV-MT (Metal-filled Trench) technology. This offers an unparalleled 63% photon detection efficiency (PDE) at 420nm, less than half the dark count rate of the previous generation of products and excellent timing performance
Product Range
The range of Silicon Photomultipliers offered by AP Technologies comprises:
- 1mm, 3mm, 4mm NUV-MT, 6mm NUV-MT components
- SiPM arrays
For details on these products please visit the SiPM product page on the APT website or contact the company direct.
For further technical information on SiPMs, please read our Introduction to SiPM Technology with an extensive range of in-depth reference material linked to from there.
Control Interface
Broadcom SiPMs interface seamlessly with control systems such as data acquisition systems, for more on these, visit the DAQs page on the AP Technologies website.
