Breakdown-quenching characteristics and mechanisms for silicon photomultipliers

Some deviant breakdown-quenching characteristics of silicon photomultipliers are demonstrated and their physical mechanisms are explored. “Twice breakdown” phenomenon, “flat-topped” avalanche pulses and the determination method of the real breakdown voltage of the detector are analyzed. These characteristics are explained by the integration model in terms of avalanche threshold current based on the Haitz's equivalent circuit model. The reasoning results show that the maximum over-voltage for a normal operating silicon photomultiplier equals the product of the avalanche threshold current and the quenching resistor of the avalanche photo-diode (APD) pixel, approximately. Moreover, the model and results can be extended to other small avalanche junctions with quenching resistor.