A CMOS ASIC Design for SiPM Arrays

Our lab has previously reported on novel board-level readout electronics for an 8×8 silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array featuring row/column summation technique to reduce the hardware requirements for signal processing. We are taking the next step by implementing a monolithic CMOS chip which is based on the row-column architecture. In addition, this paper explores the option of using diagonal summation as well as calibration to compensate for temperature and process variations. Further description of a timing pickoff signal which aligns all of the positioning (spatial channels) pulses in the array is described. The ASIC design is targeted to be scalable with the detector size and flexible to accommodate detectors from different vendors. This paper focuses on circuit implementation issues associated with the design of the ASIC to interface our Phase II MiCES FPGA board with a SiPM array. Moreover, a discussion is provided for strategies to eventually integrate all the analog and mixed-signal electronics with the SiPM, on either a single-silicon substrate or multi-chip module (MCM).