A gain control and stabilization technique for Silicon Photomultipliers in low-light-level applications around room temperature

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2012-12, Vol.695, p.222-225
• Main Authors: Li, Zhengwei, Xu, Yupeng, Liu, Congzhan, Li, Yanguo, Li, Maoshun, Chen, Yong, Wang, Yusa, Lu, Bo, Cui, Weiwei, Huo, Jia, Chen, Tianxiang, Han, Dawei, Hu, Wei, Li, Chengkui, Li, Wei, Liu, Xiaoyan, Wang, Juan, Yang, Yanji, Zhang, Yi, Zhu, Yue, Li, Gang, Zhao, Jianling, Wang, Jing, Pu, Neng, Li, Xiafei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dark current; Gain control; MPPC; SiPM
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2011.12.037

An experimental setup in dark condition was established to investigate the temperature and bias voltage dependence of the Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC), one type of the SiPM developed by Hamamatsu. The dark current of an MPPC near room temperature at a given gain can be approximated by an exponential function of temperature which is similar to the behavior of a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor. According to these facts, a gain control and stabilization circuit for MPPC is developed by using a programmable current sink with temperature compensation. Detailed design and performance analysis results of the circuit in the temperature range from 5.1°C to 33.3°C will be discussed in this paper.