Performance Evaluation of Silicon Photomultipliers for Frequency-Domain Fluorescence Lifetime Measurement Based on a Comprehensive Circuit Model

The presented models for silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) detectors in literature have been mainly used to study fast light pulses. In this paper, a comprehensive dynamic model is proposed to investigate the output signal of a SiPM exposed to intensity-modulated lights (with sine-wave modulation). A procedure is also proposed to simulate this model. Using the proposed model, the SiPM behavior is examined under various frequencies and intensities of lights in simulation. Then, fluorescence lifetime (FLT) measurement in the frequency domain is discussed. Finally, the simulation results are compared with the experimental results which are extracted from an experiment set up employing two SiPMs exposed by excitation and emission lights.