Electrical characterization and simulation of SiPMs

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are versatile and sensitive photon detectors that experience a fast growing variety of use in particle physics and related fields of application. These photo detectors have a very promising photon detection efficiency and are therefore interesting for very low light flux applications such as scintillation and fluorescence light detection. As a semiconductor device the SiPM's gain and time response strongly depend on the operating temperature and voltage. Thus they have to be understood for a proper use of the SiPM. Therefore, accurate electrical simulations of the SiPM's behavior involving electrical readout and front-end electronics help to improve the design of experimental setups, since several different designs can be tested and simulated with a manageable amount of effort. To perform these simulations, a detailed equivalent circuit of the SiPM has to be used containing a set of well-defined parameters. For this purpose, SPICE simulations of SiPMs and readout electronics have been performed. These simulations utilize an improved SiPM model consisting of resistors, capacitances and inductances. The SiPM parameters for these simulations have been determined by measuring the impedance over a wide frequency range while applying a DC voltage in forward direction and various DC voltages from zero up to the SiPM breakdown voltage in order to determine the behavior under operating conditions. The impedance measurements, the electrical model and the resulting simulations are presented. The impact of different setups and the electrical properties of the SiPM is discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.