Design considerations for a new generation of SiPMs with unprecedented timing resolution

TL;DR

This paper explores innovative design strategies for next-generation silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) aiming to achieve unprecedented timing resolution in photon detection, crucial for medical imaging and particle physics applications.

Contribution

It proposes a novel approach combining nanophotonics, microelectronics, and 3D integration to develop metamaterial-based SiPMs with significantly improved timing performance.

Findings

Potential to reach sub-10 ps timing resolution

Enhanced photodetection efficiency through metamaterials

Breakthrough in SiPM technology for high-precision timing

Abstract

The potential of photon detectors to achieve precise timing information is of increasing importance in many domains, PET and CT scanners in medical imaging and particle physics detectors, amongst others. The goal to increase by an order of magnitude the sensitivity of PET scanners and to deliver, via time-of-flight (TOF), true space points for each event, as well as the constraints set by future particle accelerators require a further leap in time resolution of scintillator-based ionizing radiation detectors, reaching eventually a few picoseconds resolution for sub MeV energy deposits. In spite of the impressive progress made in the last decade by several manufacturers, the Single Photon Time Resolution (SPTR) of SiPMs is still in the range of 70-120ps FWHM, whereas a value of 10ps or even less would be desirable. Such a step requires a break with traditional methods and the development of novel technologies. The possibility of combining the extraordinary potential of nanophotonics with new approaches offered by modern microelectronics and 3D electronic integration opens novel perspectives for the development of a new generation of metamaterial-based SiPMs with unprecedented photodetection efficiency and timing resolution.