Comparative Study of SiPM Arrays Performances for Neutron Detectors

The silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) market has significant growth due to its expanding applications in fields, such as medical imaging and nuclear physics. With various manufacturers offering SiPMs, each with unique features, there is a need for evaluating their performances. This work conducts a performance study of two medium-sized organic scintillators (EJ-309 and EJ-276G) coupled to SiPM arrays from three different brands (AdvanSiD-NUV hybrid, MPPC Hamamatsu S14161-6050HS-0, and Ketek PA3325-WB-0404). Performance evaluation is focused on energy resolution, time resolution, and the ability to discriminate between γ rays and fast neutrons. The results indicate that the Hamamatsu SiPM array outperforms the other two SiPM arrays across all studied characteristics, achieving the lowest energy and time resolutions and the highest figure of merit. Nevertheless, normalizing to the number of photoelectrons created in each SiPM array per pulse, the Ketek SiPM array demonstrated the best performance in terms of energy resolution and similar timing and discrimination performances with respect to the other two arrays. This analysis provides valuable insights for selecting the right SiPM array and scintillator combination for specific applications.