WO2016060622A1 - Process and a device for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light - Google Patents

Process and a device for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light Download PDF

Info

Publication number
WO2016060622A1
WO2016060622A1 PCT/SI2015/000033 SI2015000033W WO2016060622A1 WO 2016060622 A1 WO2016060622 A1 WO 2016060622A1 SI 2015000033 W SI2015000033 W SI 2015000033W WO 2016060622 A1 WO2016060622 A1 WO 2016060622A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
sensor
light
amplitude
correction
list
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/SI2015/000033
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Matjaz VENCELJ
Miha CANKAR
Andrej Likar
Original Assignee
Institut "Jozef Stefan"
Beyond Semiconductor D.O.O.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Institut "Jozef Stefan", Beyond Semiconductor D.O.O. filed Critical Institut "Jozef Stefan"
Publication of WO2016060622A1 publication Critical patent/WO2016060622A1/en

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01T—MEASUREMENT OF NUCLEAR OR X-RADIATION
    • G01T1/00—Measuring X-radiation, gamma radiation, corpuscular radiation, or cosmic radiation
    • G01T1/16—Measuring radiation intensity
    • G01T1/20—Measuring radiation intensity with scintillation detectors
    • G01T1/208—Circuits specially adapted for scintillation detectors, e.g. for the photo-multiplier section
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01T—MEASUREMENT OF NUCLEAR OR X-RADIATION
    • G01T1/00—Measuring X-radiation, gamma radiation, corpuscular radiation, or cosmic radiation
    • G01T1/16—Measuring radiation intensity
    • G01T1/20—Measuring radiation intensity with scintillation detectors
    • G01T1/2018—Scintillation-photodiode combinations

Definitions

  • the present invention belongs to the field of silicon photomultipliers based sensor systems, more precisely to the field of processes for extending the usability of sensor systems based on silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light and devices, which are based on these processes.
  • the technical problem is how to minimize the consequences of saturation of detectors containing silicon photomultipliers.
  • silicon photomultipliers operating in the regime of piled-up pulses of light, the sensor cannot measure the light correctly due to high incidence of short flashes of light, which results in systematic measurement errors.
  • Sensitive visible light single-photon sensor technology was improved around year 2001 by a technology, called silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). In the next ten years this improvement was followed by intense industrialization and entry into sizable markets of medical diagnostic equipment (positron emission tomography, PET), aerospace technology (Light Detection and Ranging, LIDAR) and biotechnology (bioluminescence-based analytical methods), which led to a slow replacement of the older vacuum photomultiplier technology.
  • positron emission tomography, PET positron emission tomography
  • LIDAR Light Detection and Ranging
  • biotechnology bioluminescence-based analytical methods
  • a silicon photomultiplier is a sensor of light, sensitive at the single photon level and made as a densely packed array of many avalanche photodiodes (APD) on a common silicon substrate, in the SiPM context, each of the diodes is operated in the so-called Geiger mode, meaning that each such diode is capable of avalanche breakdown upon detection of incident photon by the diode.
  • the total electrical charge released in the breakdown of one diode does not depend on the number of photons that triggered the breakdown, so that each diode individually responds to light stimuli in a binary manner.
  • Each sensitive diode is returned to a standby status by a resistor or a more elaborate active transistor switch connected in series with the diode.
  • a microcell is the assembly of the diode and a resistor or a transistor switch or a mechanism for current breakdown, respectively.
  • the current signal of the entire SiPM sensor is the sum of the breakdown currents of individual microcells and thus roughly proportional to the number of excited microcells.
  • Such a SiPM is typically used in scintillation detection systems, where a highly energetic particle incident upon scintillator deposits an amount of its kinetic energy, inducing scintillation, that is, a flash of visible light with duration of a few ns to a few ps.
  • the SiPM reacts to the light flash with an impulse of electrical current.
  • the temporal structure of the impulse reflects the temporal structure of the light flash, and the current impulse amplitude is a proportional measure of the energy deposited by the energetic particle in the scintillation detector.
  • the SiPM Given the above discussed nature of the SiPM, it is possible to drive it into a condition where a significant proportion of microcells have been excited by light within a short period of time. Since they are temporarily inhibited, the overall light sensitivity of a SiPM sensor for further incident light is significantly reduced, which is known as "binomial saturation".
  • the immediate consequence is the dependency of gain on the brightness of the incident light pulse; the brighter the pulse, the lower the gain, meaning a non-linear response of the system and reducing its dynamic range. Another consequence becomes evident when the occurrence rate of the measured light flashes becomes so high that many of the flashes are overlapping in time.
  • the gain of the sensor depends not only on the brightness of the pulse being measured, but also on the temporal dynamics and amplitudes of the most recent preceding pulses.
  • Figure 3 shows symbolic graphs of development of the incident light intensity and the corresponding electrical current through the sensor, which simply illustrates that the gain of the sensor is reduced as long as there is still some glimmer left from the previous pulses. Elimination of this systematic measurement error in measurement or detection of flashes of light is the main aim and purpose of the present invention.
  • the present invention eliminates the systematic measurement error in determining brightness of frequent flashes of light, which are common in for example scintillation detectors at high counting speed, by introducing an additional step of processing of the measured signal.
  • Patent US8476571 B2 and patent application EP2428820A2 describe different realizations of silicon photomultipliers as such.
  • Patents EP2487704A3 and EP2530490A2 disclose specific applications of such sensors.
  • Patent EP2376942B1 solves the problem of compensation of temperature dependence of SiPM sensor characteristics.
  • the problem of piled-up pulses of light is addressed by two solutions, one described in document JP2012251999A, in which the authors describe automatic adaptation of sampling speed with regard to the level of piling, with which the average electrical power of the capture system is decreased, while the above mentioned systematic measurement error is not eliminated.
  • the second solution is described in document US2013/0009267A1 , which suggests simultaneous use of sensory cells having various sizes, in regard to the average illumination of parts of the sensitive area, which represents a significant complication for production of sensors.
  • the essence of the process for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light is in that the measured electrical signal of microcells, resulting from a flash of light, is converted into a digital signal, which is in a correctional processor corrected in agreement with a pre-prepared estimation for a temporary detector sensitivity.
  • Figure 1 A silicon photomultiplier - state of the art
  • Figure 3 A symbolic graph of development of incident light intensity
  • FIG. 4 A block diagram of embodiment I according to the invention
  • FIG. 5 A block diagram of embodiment II according to the invention
  • a silicon photomultiplier is a sensor of light, sensitive to single photons 1 and made as a densely packed array of many avalanche photodiodes (APD) 2 on a common silicon substrate.
  • APD avalanche photodiodes
  • each of the diodes is operated in the Geiger mode, meaning that each such diode is capable of avalanche breakdown upon detection of incident photon by the diode.
  • the total electrical charge released in the breakdown of one diode does not depend on the number of photons that triggered the breakdown, so that each diode individually responds to light stimuli in a binary manner.
  • Each sensitive diode is returned to a standby status by a resistor 3 or a more elaborate active transistor switch connected in series with the diode.
  • microcell 4 is the assembly of the diode 2 and a resistor 3 or a transistor switch or a mechanism for current breakdown, respectively.
  • the current signal of the entire SiPM sensor is the sum of the breakdown currents of individual microcells and thus roughly proportional to the number of excited microcells.
  • a SiPM sensor is typically used in scintillation detection systems, where a highly energetic particle 5 in a scintillator 6 deposits a certain amount of its kinetic energy thereby inducing scintillation, which is a flash 7 of visible light with duration of a few ns to a few ps.
  • the SiPM sensor 8 reacts to the light flash 7 with an impulse of electrical current 9.
  • the temporal structure of the impulse reflects the temporal structure of the light flash 7, therefore the amount of the energy deposited by the energetic particle in the scintillation detector can be estimated from the current impulse amplitude. , ⁇
  • the statistics of the binomial saturation allows for relatively modest relative uncertainty in the number of temporarily inhibited microcells. It is then possible to highly precisely estimate the saturation effects from the measured signal.
  • the sensor system can thus be enhanced by an additional step in the processing of the measured signal that improves the technical characteristics of the entire system in such a way as to eliminate the systematic error due to the sensor saturation from the output signal.
  • the enhancement is based on the idea that the mentioned binomial saturation can compensated by a measuring device so that in each suitably chosen short time intervals the device performs the following steps:
  • the device prepares an estimate on the number of microcells that are still inhibited on the basis of known sensor properties and estimation of the number of previously inhibited microcells prepared during previous time intervals,
  • the device prepares an estimate on the current sensor sensitivity, which is proportional to the number of currently active microcells,
  • the device prepares an estimate on the actual light input to the sensor, by taking into account the reduced sensor sensitivity due to the number of inhibited microcells,
  • the device prepares an estimate oh the number of newly inhibited microcells.
  • the process according to the invention involves a measurement of incident light flux on a sensor 12, of which a component is a field of Geiger-mode avalanche diodes, as well as correction of created measurement error on the basis:
  • the process according to the invention which involves a measurement of the light flash amplitude in sensor 20, of which a building part is a field of avalanche diodes in a Geiger mode, as well as a correction of created measurement error on the basis:
  • each said record comprises a flash amplitude field and a timestamp field
  • correction parameters are pre-prepared and tabulated for different combinations of measured amplitudes and timestamps
  • correction of amplitude is carried out for an individual detected impulse on the basis of one or more correction parameters, which are dynamically adjusted by the process on the basis of measured characteristics of previously detected impulses.
  • Embodiment I ( Figure 4) the problem is solved so that the electrical signal 13 from the sensor 12 is continuously sampled by a fast analogue-digital converter (ADC) 14 that converts the analogue signal 13 into a continuous series 15 of numbers.
  • the series 15 of number is digitally processed by a correction processor 16 into another series 17 of numbers, which is already corrected to such values that would have been obtained from the sensor, if there was no binomial saturation; the series 17 is thus a proportional representation of the actual light incident on the sensor.
  • the said list 17 of numbers is then usually processed in a multichannel analyser (MCA) 18, which prepares a list 19 with records of impulse amplitudes.
  • MCA multichannel analyser
  • the list 19 is directly useful in further processing in research and industrial measurement systems, in medical diagnostic devices and cameras, security systems and all other systems, which have built-in silicon photomultip!iers.
  • the typical realization of the correction processor is in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).
  • Said correction tables are prepared either by a systematic search of parametric space of amplitudes and timestamps or by other means resulting in a correction table with values numerically equivalent to the ones obtained by the first method.
  • the said list 25 is directly useful in same applications as mentioned for embodiment I.
  • the extension of the silicon photomultiplier performance into the piled-up regime is made by adding an intermediate step into the measurement of the incident light intensity. This step takes into account the properties of the SiPM sensor and dynamically compensates for the gain loss due to temporary inhibition of parts of sensor. On the basis of this estimation the system reports numerically modified estimations for brightness of flashes.

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • High Energy & Nuclear Physics (AREA)
  • Molecular Biology (AREA)
  • Spectroscopy & Molecular Physics (AREA)
  • Measurement Of Radiation (AREA)
  • Nuclear Medicine (AREA)

Abstract

The present invention belongs to the field of silicon photomultipliers based sensor systems, more precisely to the field of processes for extending the usability of sensor systems with silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light and devices, which are based on these processes. The extension of the silicon photomultiplier performance into the piled-up regime is made by adding an intermediate step into the measurement of the incident light intensity. This step takes into account the properties of the sensor and dynamically compensates for the gain loss due to temporary inhibition of parts of sensor. On the basis of this estimation the system reports numerically modified estimations for brightness of flashes.

Description

Process and a device for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light
The present invention belongs to the field of silicon photomultipliers based sensor systems, more precisely to the field of processes for extending the usability of sensor systems based on silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light and devices, which are based on these processes.
The technical problem is how to minimize the consequences of saturation of detectors containing silicon photomultipliers. With silicon photomultipliers, operating in the regime of piled-up pulses of light, the sensor cannot measure the light correctly due to high incidence of short flashes of light, which results in systematic measurement errors.
Sensitive visible light single-photon sensor technology was improved around year 2001 by a technology, called silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). In the next ten years this improvement was followed by intense industrialization and entry into sizable markets of medical diagnostic equipment (positron emission tomography, PET), aerospace technology (Light Detection and Ranging, LIDAR) and biotechnology (bioluminescence-based analytical methods), which led to a slow replacement of the older vacuum photomultiplier technology.
A silicon photomultiplier is a sensor of light, sensitive at the single photon level and made as a densely packed array of many avalanche photodiodes (APD) on a common silicon substrate, in the SiPM context, each of the diodes is operated in the so-called Geiger mode, meaning that each such diode is capable of avalanche breakdown upon detection of incident photon by the diode. The total electrical charge released in the breakdown of one diode does not depend on the number of photons that triggered the breakdown, so that each diode individually responds to light stimuli in a binary manner. Each sensitive diode is returned to a standby status by a resistor or a more elaborate active transistor switch connected in series with the diode. This process usually lasts 100 ns or less, during this period a microcell is not sensitive to further incident photons. A microcell is the assembly of the diode and a resistor or a transistor switch or a mechanism for current breakdown, respectively. The current signal of the entire SiPM sensor is the sum of the breakdown currents of individual microcells and thus roughly proportional to the number of excited microcells.
Such a SiPM is typically used in scintillation detection systems, where a highly energetic particle incident upon scintillator deposits an amount of its kinetic energy, inducing scintillation, that is, a flash of visible light with duration of a few ns to a few ps. The SiPM reacts to the light flash with an impulse of electrical current. The temporal structure of the impulse reflects the temporal structure of the light flash, and the current impulse amplitude is a proportional measure of the energy deposited by the energetic particle in the scintillation detector.
Given the above discussed nature of the SiPM, it is possible to drive it into a condition where a significant proportion of microcells have been excited by light within a short period of time. Since they are temporarily inhibited, the overall light sensitivity of a SiPM sensor for further incident light is significantly reduced, which is known as "binomial saturation". The immediate consequence is the dependency of gain on the brightness of the incident light pulse; the brighter the pulse, the lower the gain, meaning a non-linear response of the system and reducing its dynamic range. Another consequence becomes evident when the occurrence rate of the measured light flashes becomes so high that many of the flashes are overlapping in time. Under such circumstances, the gain of the sensor depends not only on the brightness of the pulse being measured, but also on the temporal dynamics and amplitudes of the most recent preceding pulses. Figure 3 shows symbolic graphs of development of the incident light intensity and the corresponding electrical current through the sensor, which simply illustrates that the gain of the sensor is reduced as long as there is still some glimmer left from the previous pulses. Elimination of this systematic measurement error in measurement or detection of flashes of light is the main aim and purpose of the present invention. The present invention eliminates the systematic measurement error in determining brightness of frequent flashes of light, which are common in for example scintillation detectors at high counting speed, by introducing an additional step of processing of the measured signal.
Patent US8476571 B2 and patent application EP2428820A2 describe different realizations of silicon photomultipliers as such. Patents EP2487704A3 and EP2530490A2 disclose specific applications of such sensors. Patent EP2376942B1 solves the problem of compensation of temperature dependence of SiPM sensor characteristics. The problem of piled-up pulses of light is addressed by two solutions, one described in document JP2012251999A, in which the authors describe automatic adaptation of sampling speed with regard to the level of piling, with which the average electrical power of the capture system is decreased, while the above mentioned systematic measurement error is not eliminated. The second solution is described in document US2013/0009267A1 , which suggests simultaneous use of sensory cells having various sizes, in regard to the average illumination of parts of the sensitive area, which represents a significant complication for production of sensors.
The essence of the process for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light is in that the measured electrical signal of microcells, resulting from a flash of light, is converted into a digital signal, which is in a correctional processor corrected in agreement with a pre-prepared estimation for a temporary detector sensitivity.
The process for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light and the sensor according to this process will be described in further detail by reference to the accompanying figures, which show:
Figure 1 A silicon photomultiplier - state of the art
Figure 2 Typical use of silicon photomultiplier in scintillation detector systems - state of the art
Figure 3 A symbolic graph of development of incident light intensity and
measured current
Figure 4 A block diagram of embodiment I according to the invention
Figure 5 A block diagram of embodiment II according to the invention
A silicon photomultiplier is a sensor of light, sensitive to single photons 1 and made as a densely packed array of many avalanche photodiodes (APD) 2 on a common silicon substrate. In the SiPM context, each of the diodes is operated in the Geiger mode, meaning that each such diode is capable of avalanche breakdown upon detection of incident photon by the diode. The total electrical charge released in the breakdown of one diode does not depend on the number of photons that triggered the breakdown, so that each diode individually responds to light stimuli in a binary manner. Each sensitive diode is returned to a standby status by a resistor 3 or a more elaborate active transistor switch connected in series with the diode. This process usually lasts 100 ns or less, during this period a microcell 4 is not sensitive to further incident photons. The microcell 4 is the assembly of the diode 2 and a resistor 3 or a transistor switch or a mechanism for current breakdown, respectively. The current signal of the entire SiPM sensor is the sum of the breakdown currents of individual microcells and thus roughly proportional to the number of excited microcells.
A SiPM sensor is typically used in scintillation detection systems, where a highly energetic particle 5 in a scintillator 6 deposits a certain amount of its kinetic energy thereby inducing scintillation, which is a flash 7 of visible light with duration of a few ns to a few ps. The SiPM sensor 8 reacts to the light flash 7 with an impulse of electrical current 9. The temporal structure of the impulse reflects the temporal structure of the light flash 7, therefore the amount of the energy deposited by the energetic particle in the scintillation detector can be estimated from the current impulse amplitude. , ·
Because typical SiPM sensors consist of many thousand microcells, the statistics of the binomial saturation allows for relatively modest relative uncertainty in the number of temporarily inhibited microcells. It is then possible to highly precisely estimate the saturation effects from the measured signal. The sensor system can thus be enhanced by an additional step in the processing of the measured signal that improves the technical characteristics of the entire system in such a way as to eliminate the systematic error due to the sensor saturation from the output signal.
The enhancement is based on the idea that the mentioned binomial saturation can compensated by a measuring device so that in each suitably chosen short time intervals the device performs the following steps:
- the device prepares an estimate on the number of microcells that are still inhibited on the basis of known sensor properties and estimation of the number of previously inhibited microcells prepared during previous time intervals,
- on the basis of the prepared estimation on the current number of inhibited microcells, the device prepares an estimate on the current sensor sensitivity, which is proportional to the number of currently active microcells,
- from the currently electrically measured sensor signal the device prepares an estimate on the actual light input to the sensor, by taking into account the reduced sensor sensitivity due to the number of inhibited microcells,
- thus estimated light input is reported to further subassemblies of the sensor system,
- from the above estimates, the device prepares an estimate oh the number of newly inhibited microcells.
The process according to the invention involves a measurement of incident light flux on a sensor 12, of which a component is a field of Geiger-mode avalanche diodes, as well as correction of created measurement error on the basis:
- that the said measurement error during measurement of incident light flux occurs due to a temporal inhibition of diodes in the said sensor by each detected photon,
- that an actual number of inhibited diodes is estimated in real time from the measured electrical signal 13 from the sensor 12, - that the said estimation of number of inhibited diodes is used in calculation of a correction factor for a temporary detector sensitivity.
The process according to the invention, which involves a measurement of the light flash amplitude in sensor 20, of which a building part is a field of avalanche diodes in a Geiger mode, as well as a correction of created measurement error on the basis:
- that the said measurement error occurs during measurement of light flash amplitude because at least one almost simultaneous light flash detection of the latter inhibits at least one diode of said sensor,
- that the sequence of light flashes is represented as a list of records 23 in a processor 22, wherein each said record comprises a flash amplitude field and a timestamp field,
- that the said correction adjusts the amplitude field of at least one flash from the said list of records,
- that said corrected amplitude 25 is calculated in a correction processor 24 on the basis of amplitude and timestamp of at least one other light flash,
- that correction parameters are pre-prepared and tabulated for different combinations of measured amplitudes and timestamps,
- that measured amplitudes are corrected whenever in the chain for data acquisition in real-time,
- that the measured data, saved in a memory medium in the form of a list of records wherein each record includes at least the amplitude and the timestamp of a record, is corrected subsequently,
- that the correction of amplitude is carried out for an individual detected impulse on the basis of one or more correction parameters, which are dynamically adjusted by the process on the basis of measured characteristics of previously detected impulses.
Embodiment I (Figure 4) the problem is solved so that the electrical signal 13 from the sensor 12 is continuously sampled by a fast analogue-digital converter (ADC) 14 that converts the analogue signal 13 into a continuous series 15 of numbers. The series 15 of number is digitally processed by a correction processor 16 into another series 17 of numbers, which is already corrected to such values that would have been obtained from the sensor, if there was no binomial saturation; the series 17 is thus a proportional representation of the actual light incident on the sensor. The said list 17 of numbers is then usually processed in a multichannel analyser (MCA) 18, which prepares a list 19 with records of impulse amplitudes. The list 19 is directly useful in further processing in research and industrial measurement systems, in medical diagnostic devices and cameras, security systems and all other systems, which have built-in silicon photomultip!iers. In this case the typical realization of the correction processor is in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).
In embodiment II (Figure 5), which is particularly suitable for scintillation detection systems and has a significantly lower process complexity than the embodiment I, the problem is solved so that before the application of the correction scheme an analogue electrical signal 21 from a sensor 20 is analysed in a multichannel analyser (MCA) 22, a list 23 of records is created from records of individual scintillation flashes from the signal 21 , so that each record comprises at least the amplitude and the timestamp of the corresponding scintillation flash. The list 23 of records is corrected in a processing unit 24, where the corrections for a new list 25 are obtained from pre- prepared tables depending on amplitudes and timestamps of a temporally tight group of scintillations. Said correction tables are prepared either by a systematic search of parametric space of amplitudes and timestamps or by other means resulting in a correction table with values numerically equivalent to the ones obtained by the first method. The said list 25 is directly useful in same applications as mentioned for embodiment I.
The extension of the silicon photomultiplier performance into the piled-up regime is made by adding an intermediate step into the measurement of the incident light intensity. This step takes into account the properties of the SiPM sensor and dynamically compensates for the gain loss due to temporary inhibition of parts of sensor. On the basis of this estimation the system reports numerically modified estimations for brightness of flashes. With the process according to the invention and its embodiments, use of silicon photomultipliers in different applications is enabled, wherein the effect of errors due to physical properties of sensors on operation of such devices is minimized .

Claims

Patent claims
1 . A process for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up flashes of light, characterized in that it includes a measurement of incident light flux into a sensor (12), of which a component is a field of Geiger- mode avalanche diodes, as well as correction of created measurement error on the basis of:
- that the said measurement error during measurement of incident light flux occurs due to a temporal inhibition of diodes in the said sensor by each detected photon,
- that an actual number of inhibited diodes is estimated in real time from the measured electrical signal (13) from the sensor (12),
- that the said estimation of number of inhibited diodes is used in calculation of a correction factor for a temporary detector sensitivity.
2. The process for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up flashes of light, characterized in that it includes a measurement of amplitude of a light flash in a sensor (20), of which a component is a field of Geiger-mode avalanche diodes, as well as a correction of created measurement error on the basis of:
- that the said measurement error occurs during measurement of light flash amplitude because at least one almost simultaneous light flash detection of the latter inhibits at least one diode of said sensor,
- that the sequence of light flashes is represented as a list (23) of records in a processor (22), wherein each said record comprises a flash amplitude field and a timestamp field,
- that the said correction adjusts the amplitude field of at least one flash from the said list of records,
- that said corrected amplitude (25) is calculated in a correction processor (24) on the basis of amplitude (23) and timestamp of at least one other light flash.
3. The process according to claim 2, characterized in that the correction parameters are pre-prepared and are tabulated for different combinations of measured amplitudes and timestamps.
4. The process according to claim 2, characterized in that the measured amplitudes are corrected whenever in the chain for data acquisition in real time.
5. The process according to claim 2, characterized in that the measured data saved in a memory medium in the form of a record list, in which each record includes at least an amplitude and a timestamp of an event, is corrected subsequently.
6. The process according to claim 2, characterized in that da se that the correction of amplitude is carried out for an individual detected impulse on the basis of one or more correction parameters, which are dynamically adjusted by the process on the basis of measured characteristics of previously detected impulses.
7. A device, characterized in that it includes the process according to any of the claims from 1 to 6.
8. The device according to claim 7, characterized in that the electrical signal (13) from the sensor (12) is continuously sampled by a fast analogue-digital converter (ADC) (14) that converts the analogue signal (13) into a continuous series (15) of numbers; that the series (15) of number is digitally processed by a correction processor (16) into another series (17) of numbers, which is a proportional representation of the actual light incident on the sensor; that the said list (17) of numbers is then usually processed in a multichannel analyser (MCA) (18), which prepares a list (19) of records of impulse amplitudes.
9. The device according to claim 7, characterized in that before the application of the correction processing an analogue electrical signal (21 ) from a sensor (20) is analysed in a multichannel analyser (MCA) (22), a list (23) of records is created from records of individual scintillation flashes from the signal (21), so that each record comprises at least the amplitude and the timestamp of the corresponding scintillation flash; that the list (23) of records is corrected in a processing unit (24), where the corrections for a new list (25) are obtained from pre-prepared tables depending on amplitudes and timestamps of a temporally tight group of scintillations.
10. The device according to any of the claims from 7 to 9, characterized in that it is built in research and industrial measurement systems, medical diagnostic devices and cameras, security systems and other systems, which have built-in silicon photomultipliers.
PCT/SI2015/000033 2014-10-17 2015-10-16 Process and a device for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light WO2016060622A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
SI201400380A SI24863A (en) 2014-10-17 2014-10-17 Process and device for improvment of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light
SIP-201400380 2014-10-17

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2016060622A1 true WO2016060622A1 (en) 2016-04-21

Family

ID=55070113

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/SI2015/000033 WO2016060622A1 (en) 2014-10-17 2015-10-16 Process and a device for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light

Country Status (2)

Country Link
SI (1) SI24863A (en)
WO (1) WO2016060622A1 (en)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2020216151A1 (en) * 2019-04-24 2020-10-29 苏州瑞派宁科技有限公司 Signal correction method and device

Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP2428820A2 (en) 2010-09-13 2012-03-14 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Silicon photomultiplier and radiation detector
EP2487704A2 (en) 2011-02-14 2012-08-15 FEI Company Detection method for use in charged-particle microscopy
EP2530490A2 (en) 2011-06-03 2012-12-05 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Device for radiation detection, radiation detection system and radiation detection method
JP2012251999A (en) 2011-06-03 2012-12-20 Toshiba Corp Radiation detection device, radiation detection system and radiation detection method
US20130009267A1 (en) 2011-07-06 2013-01-10 Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc. Providing Variable Cell Density and Sizes in a Radiation Detector
EP2376942B1 (en) 2008-12-15 2013-03-27 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Temperature compensation circuit for silicon photomultipliers and other single photon counters
US8476571B2 (en) 2009-12-22 2013-07-02 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft SiPM photosensor with early signal digitization

Patent Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP2376942B1 (en) 2008-12-15 2013-03-27 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Temperature compensation circuit for silicon photomultipliers and other single photon counters
US8476571B2 (en) 2009-12-22 2013-07-02 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft SiPM photosensor with early signal digitization
EP2428820A2 (en) 2010-09-13 2012-03-14 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Silicon photomultiplier and radiation detector
EP2487704A2 (en) 2011-02-14 2012-08-15 FEI Company Detection method for use in charged-particle microscopy
EP2530490A2 (en) 2011-06-03 2012-12-05 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Device for radiation detection, radiation detection system and radiation detection method
JP2012251999A (en) 2011-06-03 2012-12-20 Toshiba Corp Radiation detection device, radiation detection system and radiation detection method
US20130009267A1 (en) 2011-07-06 2013-01-10 Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc. Providing Variable Cell Density and Sizes in a Radiation Detector

Non-Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
MATJAŽ VENCELJ ET AL: "Pile-up recovery in gamma-ray detection", AIP CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, 1 January 2012 (2012-01-01), NEW YORK, US, pages 218 - 221, XP055260887, ISSN: 0094-243X, DOI: 10.1063/1.4736792 *
NOVAK R ET AL: "Gauss-Seidel Iterative Method as a Real-Time Pile-Up Solver of Scintillation Pulses", IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, IEEE SERVICE CENTER, NEW YORK, NY, US, vol. 56, no. 6, 1 December 2009 (2009-12-01), pages 3680 - 3687, XP011285459, ISSN: 0018-9499, DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2009.2030725 *
VENCELJ M ET AL: "Event by event pile-up compensation in digital timestamped calorimetry", NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH. SECTION A: ACCELERATORS, SPECTROMETERS, DETECTORS, AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT, ELSEVIER BV * NORTH-HOLLAND, NL, vol. 607, no. 3, 21 August 2009 (2009-08-21), pages 581 - 586, XP026392555, ISSN: 0168-9002, [retrieved on 20090616] *

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2020216151A1 (en) * 2019-04-24 2020-10-29 苏州瑞派宁科技有限公司 Signal correction method and device

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
SI24863A (en) 2016-04-29

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
Frach et al. The digital silicon photomultiplier—System architecture and performance evaluation
US20150069250A1 (en) CMOS SPAD Array with Mixed Timing Pick-Off for Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography
US9677931B2 (en) Detection of radiation quanta using an optical detector pixel array and pixel cell trigger state sensing circuits
US10838089B2 (en) Apparatus, device and method for measuring breakdown voltage
US8907290B2 (en) Methods and systems for gain calibration of gamma ray detectors
EP2734861B1 (en) Photon counting imaging method and device with instant retrigger capability
WO2018162632A1 (en) A lidar readout circuit
WO2018090901A1 (en) Device and method for measuring time information of photon
Tyndall et al. A 100Mphoton/s time-resolved mini-silicon photomultiplier with on-chip fluorescence lifetime estimation in 0.13 μm CMOS imaging technology
US20130146767A1 (en) Radiation measuring device
US8969814B2 (en) System and method of determining timing triggers for detecting gamma events for nuclear imaging
US10838088B2 (en) Apparatus, device and method for measuring gain of sensor
US9817135B2 (en) Performance stabilization for scintillator-based radiation detectors
JP2016061614A (en) Signal processor, radiation detector and signal processing method
US9945962B2 (en) Signal processor and radiation detection device
JP2014228464A (en) Radiation measuring device and radiation measuring method
WO2010052674A2 (en) Analog silicon photomultiplier using phase detection
JP2015055522A (en) Radiation detector
US11047996B2 (en) Photodetector
JP2021502682A (en) Devices with semiconductor-based photomultiplier tubes and methods for gain stabilization
EP3365975B1 (en) Signal processing method for histogram generation, and corresponding device and use
WO2016060622A1 (en) Process and a device for improvement of operation of silicon photomultipliers in the regime of piled-up pulses of light
US11635531B2 (en) Apparatus for measuring photon information and photon measurement device
US8987653B2 (en) Determining relative timing offset in different electronic pathways using internal signal
EP4325253A1 (en) Photon counting detector and photon counting method

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
121 Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application

Ref document number: 15820324

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A1

NENP Non-entry into the national phase

Ref country code: DE

122 Ep: pct application non-entry in european phase

Ref document number: 15820324

Country of ref document: EP

Kind code of ref document: A1