Abstract—A new structure of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) is presented. In this structure, a lateral bulk-Si quenching resistor was introduced to replace poly-Si resistor. Thus, the fill factor of SiPM can be greatly improved. Furthermore, the active region and contact region are separated from each other in the new design, which will help to achieve devices with high quantum efficiency. The expected improvements have been confirmed by numerical simulation. Quite noticeable increase of quantum efficiency, especially at ultra-violet wavelengths, has been observed. The quantum efficiency at 300nm wavelength increases from 20% to 86%. Therefore, SiPM devices with very high photon detection efficiency will be very likely to be achieved.
Index Terms—Silicon photomultiplier, photon detection efficiency, quantum efficiency
The authors are with the Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 11 Science Park Road, Science ParkII, and Singapore 117685 (e-mail: sunf@ime.a-star.edu.sg).
Cite: Fei Sun, Ning Duan, and Patrick Lo, "Silicon Photomultiplier with High Photon Detection Efficiency," International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 872-875, 2012.