Noise analysis and optimization of VCII-based SiPM interface circuit

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Noise analysis and optimization of VCII-based SiPM interface circuit G. Ferri1 • L. Safari1 • G. Barile1 • L. Pantoli1 • V. Stornelli1 Received: 1 December 2019 / Revised: 1 September 2020 / Accepted: 3 November 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020

Abstract Recently, second generation voltage conveyor (VCII)-based transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) have begun to find their way in different applications, among which, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) interfacing circuitry. There are many advantages which make VCII-based TIAs attractive over conventional circuits: the intrinsic low impedance at VCII current input Y port is very helpful to mitigate the effect of high value sensor capacitance and provides fast response time; the achieved bandwidth is high and due to current mode operation; the circuits enjoy the low-voltage low-power features. As signal-tonoise ratio is a crucial parameter in SiPMs interface circuit applications, here we consider the noise specifications and optimization of VCII-based SiPM interface circuits. The noise model of VCII is introduced and equivalent noise of a VCIIbased interface circuit is derived. Methods to optimize trade-offs existing between key parameters including power consumption, gain and noise performance are discussed. Simulation results are also provided showing a considerable reduction of two orders of magnitude in most of the noise performances when compared to the previous work while preserving other performance parameters. Keywords CCII  Current mode  VCII  Current conveyor

1 Introduction Interesting features such as high photodetection efficiency, robustness, high gain and low-cost has created a high interest in Silicon Photomultiplier detectors (SiPM), which are very promising in different fields of fast timing applications such as medical imaging (TOF-PET) and high energy physics [1–6]. On the other side, SiPMs have drawbacks related to some performance parameters for the dedicated preamplifier. For example, to avoid the reduction in response time caused by high value output capacitance of SiPM, (which exhibits values in the range of hundreds of pF [7, 8]), the preamplifier circuit must exhibit very low input impedance. In addition, SiPMs do not behave as an ideal current source and their equivalent output impedance varies by the amount of incident light. Therefore, the low input impedance of the preamplifier is mandatory to keep the nonlinear behavior caused by non-constant output

& G. Ferri [email protected] 1

Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy

impedance of SiPM, as low as possible. Another important parameter of preamplifier is the low noise performance which is crucial to avoid whole system signal-to-noise degradation. Definitively, as the amplitude of SiPM output current is low, the preamplifier should exhibit very low noise feature. Finally, in order to use the full potential of SiPM in achieving fast response time, high frequency performance is another critical parameter in the associa