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We report on the electrical and optical characterization, in continuous wave regime, of a novel class of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in standard planar technology on a silicon p-type substrate. Responsivity measurements, performed with an incident optical power down to tenths of picowatts, at different reverse bias voltages and on a broad (340–820 nm) spectrum, will be shown and discussed. The device temperature was monitored, allowing us to give a physical interpretation of the measurements. The obtained results demonstrate that such novel silicon photomultipliers are suitable as sensitive power meters for low photon fluxes.

In this work, we have designed and implemented a microcontroller-based embedded system for blood pressure monitoring through a PhotoPlethysmoGraphic (PPG) technique. In our system, it is possible to perform PPG measurements via reflectance mode. Hardware novelty of our system consists in the adoption of Silicon PhotoMultiplier detectors. The signal received from the photodetector is used to calculate the instantaneous heart rate and therefore the heart rate variability. The obtained results show that, by using our system, it is possible to easily extract both the PPG and the breath signal. These signals can be used to monitor the patients during the convalescence both in hospital and at home.

A design and implementation of a portable functional Near InfraRed Spectroscopy embedded system prototype is described. In this theoretical and experimental work, we present an embedded system hosting 64 LED sources and 128 Silicon PhotoMultiplier detectors (SiPM). The elementary part of the structure is a flexible probe “leaf” consisting of 16 SiPMs, 4 couples of LEDs, each operating at two wavelengths, and a temperature sensor. The hardware system is based on an ARM main microcontroller that allows to perform both the switching time of LEDs and the acquisition of the SiPM outputs. The performed preliminary experimental tests achieved very promising results, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of our fNIRS system.

We report on the design and the electro-optical characterization of new classes of 4H-SiC Schottky UV detectors, fabricated employing Ni 2 Si interdigitated strips. We have measured, in dark conditions, the forward and reverse I-V characteristics as a function of temperature and C-V characteristics. Responsivity measurements of the devices, as function of wavelength in the UV range, of package temperature and of applied reverse bias are reported. We also compared devices featuring different strip pitch sizes, discussing their performances, and found the device exhibiting best results.

We report on the design and the electro-optical characterization of a novel class of 4H-SiC vertical Schottky UV detectors, based on the pinch-off surface effect and obtained employing Ni2Si interdigitated strips. We have measured, in dark conditions, the forward and reverse I–V characteristics as a function of the temperature and the C–V characteristics. Responsivity measurements of the devices, as a function of the wavelength (in the 200 – 400 nm range), of the package temperature and of the applied reverse bias are reported. We compared devices featured by different strip pitch size, and found that the 10 μm device pitch exhibits the best results, being the best compromise in terms of full depletion and space-strip width ratio.

We performed a Signal to Noise Ratio characterization, in the continuous wave regime, at different bias voltages, frequencies and temperatures, on a novel class of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in planar technology on silicon p-type substrate. Signal to Noise Ratio has been measured as the ratio of the photogenerated current, filtered and averaged by a lock-in amplifier, and the Root Mean Square deviation of the overall current flowing to the device. The measured noise takes into account the shot noise, resulting from the photocurrent and the dark current. We have also performed a comparison between our SiPMs and a photomultiplier tube in terms of Signal to Noise Ratio, as a function of the temperature of the SiPM package and at different bias voltages. Furthermore, Excess Noise Factor measurements of the SiPM, as a function of the applied bias, are shown and discussed. Our results show the outstanding performance of this novel class of SiPMs even without the need of any cooling system.

 Abstract— We report on Signal-to-Noise Ratio measurements carried out, in the continuous wave regime, at different bias voltages, frequencies and temperatures, on a class of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in planar technology on silicon p- type substrate. Signal-to-Noise Ratio has been measured as the ratio of the photogenerated current, filtered and averaged by a lock-in amplifier, and the Root Mean Square deviation of the same current. The measured noise takes into account the shot noise, resulting from the photocurrent and the dark current. We have also performed a comparison between our SiPMs and a photomultiplier tube in terms of Signal-to-Noise Ratio, as a function of the temperature of the SiPM package and at different bias voltages. Our results show the outstanding performance of this class of SiPMs even without the need of any cooling system.

In this paper, we present the fabrication process steps and the characterization of 4H-SiC vertical Schottky UV detectors, where interdigitated strips, acting as top metal contacts, have been realized in $\hbox{Ni}_{2}\hbox{Si}$ . These devices exploit the pinch-off surface effect. $I$ – $V$ and $C$ – $V$ characteristics, as functions of temperature, were measured in dark conditions. In addition, we have carried out responsivity measurements, for wavelengths ranging from 200 to 400 nm, at varying package temperature and applied reverse bias. A comparison among devices having different strip pitch sizes has been performed, thus finding out that the 10- $\mu\hbox{m}$ pitch class demonstrates the top performances as regards the tradeoff between exposed surface area and complete merge of adjacent depleted regions under top contacts.

We report the electrical and optical comparison, in continuous wave regime, of two novel classes of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) fabricated in planar technology on silicon P-type and N-type substrate respectively. Responsivity measurements have been performed with an incident optical power from tenths of picowatts to hundreds of nanowatts and on a broad spectrum, ranging from ultraviolet to near infrared (340-820 nm). For both classes of investigated SiPMs, responsivity shows flat response versus the optical incident power, when a preset overvoltage and wavelength is applied . More in detail, this linear behavior extends up to about 10 nW for lower overvoltages, while a shrink is observed when the reverse bias voltage increases. With regards to our responsivity measurements, carried out in the abovementioned spectral range, we have found a peak around 669 nm for the N-on-P and a peak at 417 nm for the P-on-N SiPM. A physical explanation of the all experimental results is also provided in the paper.