Analysis of transit time spread on FBK silicon photomultipliers

In this paper we studied one of the aspects potentially limiting the single-photon time-resolution (SPTR) of the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM): the transit time spread (TTS). We illuminated the SiPM in different positions with a fast-pulsed laser collimated to a circular spot of 0.2 mm-diameter and acquired bi-dimensional maps of the avalanche-signal arrival time of RGB and RGB-HD SiPMs, produced at FBK. We studied the effect of both the number of bonding wires connecting the device to the package and the layout of the top-metal connection (on the device). We found that the TTS does not simply depend on the trace length between the cell and the bonding pad and it could vary in the range between tens of picoseconds (with 3 bonding connections) to more than one hundred of picoseconds (with one connection).