16-channel SiPM high-frequency readout with time-over-threshold discrimination for ultrafast time-of-flight applications

Background: Over the past five years, ultrafast high-frequency (HF) readout concepts have advanced the timing performance of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). The shown impact in time-of-flight (TOF) techniques can further push the limits in light detection and ranging (LiDAR), time-of-flight positron-emission tomography (TOF-PET), time-of-flight computed tomography (TOF-CT) or high-energy physics (HEP). However, upscaling these electronics to a system-applicable, multi-channel readout, has remained a challenging task, posed by the use of discrete components and a high power consumption. To this day, there are no means to exploit the high TOF resolution of these electronics on system scale or to measure the actual timing performance limits of a full detector block. Methods: In this work, we present a 16-channel HF readout board, including leading-edge discrimination and a linearized time-over-threshold (TOT) method, which is fully compatible with a high-precision time-to-digital converters (TDCs), such as the picoTDC developed at CERN. The discrete implementation allows ideal adaptation of this readout to a broad range of detection tasks. As a first step, the functionality of the circuit has been tested using the TOFPET2 ASIC as back-end electronics to emulate the TDC, also in view of its properties as a highly scalable data acquisition solution. Results: The produced board is able to mitigate influences of baseline shifts in the TOFPET2 front end, which has been shown in experiments with a pulsed laser, increasing the achievable intrinsic coincidence timing resolution (CTR) of the TOFPET2 readout electronics from 70 ps (FWHM) to 62 ps (FWHM). Single-channel coincidence experiments including a $$\gamma$$γ -source, 2 $$\times$$× 2 $$\times$$× 3 mm $$^{3}$$3 LYSO:Ce,Ca crystals and Broadcom NUV-MT SiPMs resulted in a CTR of 118 ps (FWHM). For a 4 $$\times$$× 4 matrix of 3.88 $$\times$$× 3.88 $$\times$$× 19 mm $$^{3}$$3 LYSO:Ce,Ca crystals one-to-one coupled to a 4 $$\times$$× 4 array of Broadcom NUV-MT SiPMs, an average CTR of 223 ps (FWHM) was obtained. Conclusion: The implemented 16-channel HF electronics are fully functionall and have a negligible influence on the timing performance of the back-end electronics used, here the TOFPET2 ASIC. The ongoing integration of the picoTDC with the 16-channel HF board is expected to further set the path toward sub-100 ps TOF-PET and sub-30ps TOF resolution for single-photon detection.