Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 695 (2012) 354358

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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in

Physics Research A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nima

Single photoelectron timing resolution of SiPM as a function of the bias

voltage, the wavelength and the temperature
V. Puill n, C. Bazin, D. Breton, L. Burmistrov, V. Chaumat, N. Dinu, J. Maalmi, J.F. Vagnucci, A. Stocchi
Laboratory of Linear Accelerator (LAL), CNRSIn2p3, 91898 Orsay, France

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Available online 8 January 2012

This work reports on Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) timing resolution measurements performed at the
picosecond level at Laboratory of Linear Accelerator (LAL), In2p3- CNRS.
The dependence of Single Photoelectron Timing Resolution (SPTR) with the applied voltage,
wavelength of the light and the temperature was measured for detectors from Hamamatsu Photonics,
AdvanSiD and Sensl with an active area of 1 and 9 mm2.
The SPTR improves with the bias voltage increase. No signicant variation of SPTR was observed
with the temperature change. We also observed a weak variation of it as a function of the wavelength of
the light. The best SPTR measured was about 120 ps (FWHM).
& 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM)
Single photoelectron timing resolution
(SPTR)
Time-of-ight (TOF)
Picoseconds level

1. Introduction
Time-of-ight (TOF) technique is used in High Energy Physics
experiments to perform particle identication. TOF systems based
on SiPM detectors coupled to quartz Cherenkov radiators could be
an option for upgrading the Particle Identication system capabilities. It is assumed that few photons (less than 10) reach the
photodetector at the quartz output; SiPM should then be evaluated at a weak light level in order to determine its contribution
to the total timing resolution of the detection chain.
In the present article, we report on the study of the single
photoelectron timing resolution (SPTR) of different SiPMs. This
measurement is performed in blue light to match with the
wavelength of Cherenkov detectors but also in red to study its
variation with the wavelength of the light. We also study the SPTR
at 0, 10 and 20 1C to determine if an accurate stabilization of the
temperature is mandatory to keep the SPTR at a constant level.
This work was carried out in the framework of the Forward PID
collaboration of the SuperB experiment with funding of IN2P3
and INFN.

2. Experimental
2.1. Description of the tested devices and experimental set-up
Devices from Hamamatsu Photonics (MPPC), Sensl (SPM) and
AdvanSiD (ASD, produced by F.B.K) were characterized in the same
n

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: puill@lal.in2p3.fr (V. Puill).

0168-9002/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.nima.2011.12.039

experimental conditions. These detectors are listed in Table 1.

The two MPPC with the references 10-50SBK-4S and 10-100FFS
are prototypes (also called wide trace MPPC) designed to improve
the timing resolution of the standards MPPC [1].
All the characterizations were performed inside a climatic
chamber that gives a high stability ( 70.1 1C) of the temperature.
The temperature of the SiPM is monitored by a Pt100 sensor
mounted very close (2 mm) to it and read by an acquisition unit
(Keithley 2700).
The Fig. 1 presents the experimental set-up used for the SPTR
measurements. Optical pulses from Pilas laser diodes are sent via
a semi-reective mirror on the SiPM and on a reference PMT
(Hamamatsu R7400U-01) that checked the time stability of the
laser intensity. Three different laser diodes (405, 467 and 635 nm)
are driven at a repetition rate of 500 kHz. The light intensity is
controlled with neutral density lters placed between the semireective mirror output and the SiPM. The spectral width of the
laser pulses does not exceed 3 nm and, depending on the laser
diode head, the pulse timing width is between 38 and 50 ps.
The read-out electronics for the SiPM signal consists in a
500 MHz MITEQ voltage amplier (gain 350) with an input
impedance of 50 O. The amplier output is sent via a SMA cable
and sampled either by a Wavepro 750ZI LeCroy digital oscilloscope (40 GSamples/s, 4 GHz of analog bandwidth) or by the
3.3 GSamples/s WaveCatcher ASIC-based waveform digitizer
developed at LAL [2].
2.2. Timing measurement method
A rst set of measurements was performed in order to determine the working range of each SiPM: its breakdown voltage (VBD),

V. Puill et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 695 (2012) 354358

gain and dark count rate (DCR) were measured at 0, 15 and 20 1C.
The temperature variation coefcient of the breakdown voltage of
each device was then calculated. For more precisions about the
employed set-up and the principle of measurements, refer to [3].
Then, and for each measurement, we checked that the SiPM
works in single photo-electron mode: on the histogram of the
signal amplitude, we observe the pedestal peak with at least 80%
of the events (signals with amplitude 0), then a second peak due
to signals with an amplitude of 1 p.e and between 15% and 20% of
the population of this peak with amplitude 2 p.e (Fig. 2). The
events of the 2 p.e peak include the cross-talk of the device.
Since the PDE SiPM increases with the bias voltage, we
adapted the attenuation of the light when changing the bias
voltage (Vbias) of the SiPM in order to stay in the single photoelectron detection condition.
The timing resolution to single photon was studied by measuring the uctuations of the difference in time (Dt) between the
SiPM amplied signal and the laser driver synchronization output
(laser trigger).
The tuning of the instruments (oscilloscope and Wavecatcher)
is a very important matter:

 as the incident ux is very low (1 or 2 photons/pulse) and the

SiPM PDE is between 10 and 40% (depending on the device and
the wavelength), a lot of photons are not converted. In order to

Table 1
Characteristics of the tested SiPMs (VBD: breakdown voltage).
Producer

AdvanSiD
HAMAMATSU
HAMAMATSU
HAMAMATSU
HAMAMATSU
HAMAMATSU
Sensl
Sensl
AdvanSiD
HAMAMATSU
HAMAMATSU
HAMAMATSU
Sensl

Ref SiPM

ASD-SiPM1S-M-50
S10262-11-25
S10262-11-50
S10262-11-100
10-50S BK-4S
10-100S FS
SPM1020X13
SPM1035X13
ASD-SiPM3S-M-50
S10262-33-25
S10262-33-50
S10262-33-100
SPM1035X13

355

avoid those lost events for timing resolution measurements,

we performed a coincidence window of around 10 ns between
the laser trigger and the SiPM signal taken with a threshold
above the electronic noise of the chain (around 20 mV). This
tuning improves the single photo-electron acquisition rate.
as the rising time of the SiPM signal changes when its amplitude
changes (e.g. due to cross-talk event, variation of Vbias), we use a
constant-fraction threshold instead of a xed one to perform the
measurements of Dt. With this method, all the detectors are
characterized in the same experimental conditions.
This threshold is set to 50% of the peak of the SiPM signal and of
the laser trigger one even if this last is very stable.

In all measurements discussed below, we report timing resolutions as the FWHM of the timing (Dt) distribution and refer to
them as SPTR. The SPTR is not corrected with the laser pulse width.
The contributions to the SPTR from the electronics were
measured at LAL: it is about 8 ps in the case of the use of the
Wavecatcher and 1 ps for the Wavepro 750ZI. Optical contributions were measured by Advanced Laser Diode Systems: as the
laser trigger jitter is around 3 ps, the main contribution from the
light source comes from the pulse width (3850 ps FWHM).
The systematic errors on the SPTR measurement were estimated at 7 5% (10% for the 9 mm2). The values of Dt measured
by the Wavecatcher and the oscilloscope are in agreement
within 5%.

3. SiPM SPTR measurements

Area
(mm2)

Pixel
size (lm)

VBD (V)
at 20 1C

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
9
9
9
9
9
9

50  50
25  25
50  50
100  100
50  50
100  100
20  20
35  35
50  50
25  25
50  50
100  100
35  35

29
69.2
68.3
68.7
69.1
69.1
27
27.5
31
69.5
69.5
69.2
27

3.1. SiPM SPTR as a function of the bias voltage

The study of the SiPM SPTR with the bias voltage was
performed at 467 nm and at a temperature of 20 1C. Fig. 3 shows
the results of these measurements as a function of the overvoltage DV (VbiasVbreakdown).
We observe an improvement of the timing resolution with an
increasing overvoltage for all the devices till a maximum value
of the bias voltage above which we cannot distinguish dark noise
pulses from the true pulses due to the detection of light. For the
MPPC, we observe an improvement of the SPTR with the pixel size
increase (at the same DV). The size of the pixel does not affect the
SPTR of the SPM.

Fig. 1. Experimental setup for the SiPM SPTR measurement.

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V. Puill et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 695 (2012) 354358

Fig. 2. Laser and SiPM signals on the oscilloscope with the CFD ratios, coincidence window and histograms of the measurements (SiPM amplitude and Dt between the
SiPM and the laser trigger signals). The SiPM signal, in this example, arrives before the laser trigger due to the delay put between the laser driver and the oscilloscope.

Fig. 3. 1 mm2 SiPM SPTR as a function of the over-voltage.

The best SPTR was measured on the detector ASD (FWHM

120 ps), the wide trace MPPCs and the two SPMs show approximately the same behavior (150160 ps). The wide trace MPPCs
show better SPTR than the standard one.
3.2. SiPM SPTR as a function of the temperature
The variation of the temperature is a critical parameter for the
behavior of SiPM as it implies the change of its breakdown
voltage, gain and DCR [4,5]. To study its effect on the timing
resolution, we performed measurement between 0 and 20 1C at
constant DV (which is calculated at 20 1C for a bias voltage value
that gives the best SPTR). Only 9 mm2 MPPC could be measured,
the SPM and ASD showing too much dark count rate (E 10 MHz
at 20 1C).
Fig. 4 shows the results at 0, 10 and 20 1C and for different
wavelengths. As the MPPC and ASD show a stable behavior with
the temperature increase, we observe a small trend to the
degradation of the SPTR (1015%) for the SPM. We assume that
this is due to the fact that the difference of temperature is too
low to affect in a signicant way the mobility of the charge
carriers [6].
These variations with the temperature are independent of
the pixel size and on the wavelength of the light detected by
the SiPM.

Fig. 4. 1 mm2 and 9 mm2 SiPM SPTR as a function of the temperature at constant
DV and for different wavelengths.

3.3. SiPM SPTR as a function of the wavelength

Fig. 5 shows the SPTR variations with the wavelength at a
temperature of 20 1C. We ob serve 2 different behaviors: a trend
to the improvement of the SPTR when the wavelength increases
for the MPPCs whereas the contrary is observed for the SPMs and
the ASD. For all these detectors, SPTR and PDE (photon detection
efciency) do not achieved their best value at the same wavelength [2] (as the MPPC PDE is best in blue and the SPMs is best
in red).

V. Puill et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 695 (2012) 354358

In the case of the SPMs, it seems that the wavelength increase

has a more important effect on larger pixel size (the SPTR
variation between 405 and 635 nm is negligible for the 20 mm
whereas it is about 16% for the 35 mm).
We observe also this phenomenon with the MPPCs: even if the
variation is very weak (almost within the measurement errors),
the trend is stronger for the 100 mm than for the 25 mm for the
9 mm2 for example.
To explain this observation is not trivial; for MPPC for
example, we would have expected a better SPTR in blue than
in red: if we consider the simple detector geometry shown in
Fig. 6 (p/n junction on a n-type substrate) and the absorption
length of light in Silicon, blue photons are absorbed in half a mm

357

and the red one are stopped deeper, at a depth of 23 mm.

The electrons created by the absorption of blue photon reach
quickly the high eld region (if we consider that the junction is at
a depth of 0.51 mm) whereas the holes created by the absorption
of red photon reach this region hundred of picoseconds later (as
they are farther and their drift velocity is twice less than that of
the electron [7]). We would then have expected more important
uctuations on the arrival time of these carriers due to the
phenomenon of lateral spreading by diffusion [8] and therefore
a higher SPTR value.
This reasoning is too simple and other parameters like the eld
proles and the depth of the junction have to be taken into
account in order to explain what we observe (these information
are not disclosed by the producers).
3.4. Delayed events
The timing prole (Dt histogram) in the single photon regime
is well tted by a Gaussian function plus another one corresponding to delayed events with a mean value 100300 ps latter than
the mean value of the main Gaussian t (Fig. 7).
We observed this behavior, in a more or less pronounced way,
with all the SiPMs, at the three different wavelengths (with 2 laser
drivers and 3 different laser diode heads), in two test benches
with different geometries. The proportion of delayed events
increases with the overvoltage. We checked, cutting the events
with an amplitude pulse of 2 photo-electrons and tting the
resulting timing distribution histogram that these events do not
come from the cross-talk inherent to the detector. They cannot be
explained either by after-pulses as we use a narrow coincidence
widow (between 5 and 10 ns). The study of this tail as a function
of the detector pixel size, the bias voltage and the wavelength of
the light is on progress and its results will be reported in a future
article.

4. Conclusions

Fig. 5. 1 mm2 and 9 mm2 SiPM SPTR as a function of the wavelength at 20 1C.

The single photoelectron timing resolution of different SiPMs

was measured over each detector bias voltage range in blue light,
then at 2 different wavelengths of pulsed light at a xed overvoltage for temperatures from 0 to 20 1C.
The increase of the bias voltage improves signicantly the
SPTR. However, this effect is limited by the parallel increase of the
DCR that prevents the detection of single photon when the
overvoltage is too high. The best values of SPTR for MPPC and
SPM are around 150 ps (FWHM) whereas the SPTR of ASD shows

Fig. 6. Simplied structure of a MPPC and absorption depth of photon in intrinsic Si as a function of the wavelength (reproduced from [9]).

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V. Puill et al. / Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 695 (2012) 354358

Fig. 7. Dt distribution of the MPPC S10362-33-100 at 2 bias voltages (left: 69.3 V, right: 70 V) at 20 1C and 467 nm.

120 ps. MPPC SPTR is slightly better in red light than in blue
whereas the contrary (with amplitude of variation more pronounced) is observed on the SPM and ASD.
The variation of the temperature (from 0 to 20 1C) does not
affect in a signicant way the SPTR; nevertheless, the cooling of
the device can improve the single photon discrimination efciency by decreasing the DCR.
More work is in progress to understand the shape of the timing
resolution (delayed events) and the SPTR variations with the
wavelength and the pixel size.
SiPMs exhibit good single photoelectron timing resolution for
particle identication system in comparison with MCP-PMTs
(multi channels plate photomultiplier) with SPTR quoted at
70 ps in sigma, around 160 ps in FWHM. However, their weak
radiation hardness does not permit to use them, for the moment,
in hostile environments.

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