Planar CMOS analog SiPMs: design, modeling, and characterization

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are large area detectors consisting of an array of single-photon-sensitive microcells, which make SiPMs extremely attractive to substitute the photomultiplier tubes in many applications. We present the design, fabrication, and characterization of analog SiPMs in standard planar 0.35 μm CMOS technology, with about 1 mm × 1 mm total area and different kinds of microcells, based on single-photon avalanche diodes with 30 μm diameter reaching 21.0% fill-factor (FF), 50 μm diameter (FF = 58.3%) or 50 μm square active area with rounded corner of 5 μm radius (FF = 73.7%). We also developed the electrical SPICE model for CMOS SiPMs. Our CMOS SiPMs have 25 V breakdown voltage, in line with most commercial SiPMs and higher gain (8.8 × 106, 13.2 × 106, and 15.0 × 106, respectively). Although dark count rate density is slightly higher than state-of-the-art analog SiPMs, the proposed standard CMOS processing opens the feasibility of integration with active electronics, for switching hot pixels off, drastically reducing the overall dark count rate, or for further on-chip processing.