Silicon PhotoMultiplier Detection

Solutions From SensL

sensL: light detection and measurement

P Hughes, DESY, 17th July ‘09

Talk Outline

• Introduction– Motivation for SPM– SensL

• Product range

• Applications

• SPM Status – Technical Direction– Detector Performance (SensL)– SPM Manufacturing (Up Scaling)

• Outlook

2

3

Motivation

Vacuum Tube Diode

(Fleming)

1875 1900 1925

LightBulb(Edison)

LED (Holonyak)

CRT(Ferdinand

Braun)

Plasma tv(Bitzer/Gene Slottow)

Silicon Transistor(Texas Inst.)

ENIAC (17,468 Tubes)

CMOS chip (174,569 transistors)

PhotomultiplierTube (RCA)

1950 1975 2000

So

lid S

tate

Va

cuu

m T

ub

e

SPM

...is to provide a solid-state alternative to the vacuum tube based photomultiplier tube (PMT)...

SensL’s Mission

4

5

Core Competence

Photon Counting / Timing(DigitalAPD)

Silicon Photomultiplier(SPM)

Single Photon Counting(SPC)

Identical Core Technology

Multiple Configurations

6

Photon Counting

Single Photon Counting & Timing (Digital Mode)

PCDMini20um,100um & 1mm

Active Area

HRMTime27 Picosecond Timing Module

4 Channel

7

Silicon Photomultiplier (SPM)

Solid-state Analog Detectors and Arrays

SPMMicro 1mm & 3mm

Detectors

SPMArraysLarge Area

3-side & 4-side TileableSPMMini High Performance

Sub-Systems

8

Linear Arrays - Timing

Cs-137Mn-54

Crystal (Unwrapped)

Detector SPM6035

- 1 x 256 Array

- 40um detector active area

- 50um pitch to give fill factor 80%

- Two 1 x 128 ROICS

• Chip on board wirebond packaging

• FPGA interface board

- Applications in Imaging LIDAR, Microscopy and Spectroscopy

9

Nuclear Medicine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography

198,000,000 microcells0.5m2 active area55,000 SPM Pixels

57,600 microcells1.44cm2 active area

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Radiation Detection

• SPM combined with scintillation crystals

• Key advantages over PMT

– Small form factor

– Detection & Identification

– Magnetic field immunity

– Cost effective

– Low voltage operation (30V)

– High uniformity of detectors

– Ideal for portable systems

2008 IEEE Nuclear Symposium Record

11

Analytical Instruments

Ocular Vasculature of Mouse Antigen Interaction of T Cells & APCs

Human Colon Crypt Swallowtail Butterfly Interneurons

SPM provides a pathway to miniaturised high volume systems

High Energy Physics

GlueX Detector Lead GlassDetector

Superconducting Solenoid

Electron Beam from CEBAF

Coherent BremsstrahlungPhoton Beam

Tracking

Target

CerenkovCounter

Time ofFlight

BarrelCalorimeter

Note that tagger is80 m upstream ofdetector

Silicon PhotoMultiplier Detection

Direction & Performance

sensL: light detection and measurement

P Hughes, DESY, 17th July ‘09

14

Technical Direction

Detector Performance Detector Core Performance Established (Continue driving forward key parameters) Broadband detection response – Near UV, Vis and Near-IR

Manufacture (key)Volume Manufacture – process control/uniformity Large Area Arrays (Scale-up)

Environmental Conditions (Robust detection solution)High Field Magnetic (10T)

Radiation Hardness (DD, TID)

Better System Design Understanding Readout Interface

Detector Performance

• SPS• Gain• PDE (Fill Factor)• Dark Rate/Crosstalk• SPM Timing

15

1mm2 and 9mm2 SPM20, 35, 50 & 100µm microcells

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1100

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Microcell Size (um)

Nu

mb

er

of M

icro

cells

pe

r m

m^2

Single Photoelectron Spectra

16

Single photoelectron peak distributions at 25◦C (unshaded) and -196◦C (shaded) at bias voltages of 31.5V and 27.5V respectively

Gain

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Linear Dependence of Vbr with temperature 18.3±2.5mV/◦C Stable linear device gain for a constant over-voltage from RT to -190◦C

PDE

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PDE = QE * AIP * FF

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 11030%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Microcell Size (um)F

ill F

act

or

PDE & Crosstalk

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PDE = ~15% @+2V

(35um microcell design)

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Dark Rate

1mm, 20um Cell Device

SPM Timing Response

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• Avalanche onset time is ~3ns

• Recovery time set by internal RC of SPM

• Optimised output circuitry provides ability to use picosecond timing of the photon counting detector inside the SPM

*Schaart, IEEE NSS, 2008

• Measurement of SPMArray with LYSO crystal and 22Na source

• Note this SPMArray contains 57k Single Photon Counting Detectors

SPM - Manufacture

• Leverage Heritage of Silicon Manufacturing• Improve Process Control

– Wafer to Wafer/ Lot to Lot – Uniformity

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SPM8 – 3MM SPM A20H700 DIE PER WAFER X 8640 MICROCELLS = 6 MILLION PHOTON COUNTING DETECTORS

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Inkless Wafer Sort

Inkless wafer map

Automatic die pick & sort

Wafer binning output

Vbr Uniformity

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Tight distributions, across wafer, wafer to wafer, run to runBreakdown voltage independent of diode structure, size

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Optical Uniformity

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Scale-Up: Large Area

SPM Pixel

NxN SPM Submodule

MxM SPM Module

Example Shown:N = 5; M =3

• Scaled SPM array architecture –

e.g 0.5m2 (total area)/PET system

• Submodules equivalent to 1.5” PMT sizes

• 4 side buttable

• Electronics integration

Flex Arrays (Prototypes)

SPMArray– NxN SPM individually addressed

SPMPlus– NxN array summed

output– Large Area detection

Flex Benefits• Low cost/Lightweight • Scalable • Simplified electrical

interconnections• Small Form Factor

PCT Patent

Glass Arrays for PET/MRI Ring

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Utilises flip chip & glass substrates – 3 side tile

1 23

4

S1

S2

S3S4

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

Output (mVolts)

Pixel Position

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

SPM Array #

% (

ST

D/M

ED

IAN

)

Array Uniformity

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Ceramic Arrays

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NEW PRODUCT RELEASE!!!!

Outlook (SensL)

• SPM Technology is now starting to compete with PMT’s in many markets

– Performance Improvement will continue to be made– Baseline detector performance established for many application– Technology adoption is growing– New players are & will emerge

• PMT landscape has changed – new opportunities for SPM• Establish manufacturing credibility - needs greater visibility from

competition• More careful system level integration & understanding needed

as PMT legacy for system performance is often problematic

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New Website

32THANK YOU!