Electro-optical Characterization Bench

The laboratoy is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation for the complete electro-optical characterization of the Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) produced by SRS. We perform in-house the following measurements on the devices:

• DC characterization with semiconductor analyzers: forward and reverse current measurement for checking the functionality of the detector and for estimating the breakdown voltage, the leakage current and the value of the quenching resistor.
• Dynamic characterization with the oscilloscope: from analisys of the waveform acquired from the SiPM in dark, we obtain a precise information about the Gain, the Dark Count Rate and the correlated noise properties (Afterpulsing and Optical Crosstalk) of the device, with respect to different bias conditions.
• Photo-detection Efficiency measurements: we measure the photo-detection efficiency of the detector by combining different techniques, DC and pulsed, and using LED illumination.

All the measurements are performed in a controlled-temperature, dark environment and are PC controlled, for a fully automated bias-voltage and temeprature sweep.

For these measurements, the laboratory features the following instrumentation:

• Multi-channel semiconductor analyzers.
• High-speed, four-channel digitizing oscilloscopes (600 MHz - 2.5 GHz; up to 40 GS/s).
• PC-controlled thermostatic chambers.
• Different power supplies (up to 120 V).
• Pulse generators.
• Led pulsers.
• Integrating sphere and optical bench.