Results of a combined monolithic crystal and an array of ASICs controlled SiPMs

Abstract In this work we present the energy and spatial resolutions we have obtained for a γ - ray detector based on a monolithic LYSO crystal coupled to an array of 256 SiPMs. Two crystal configurations of the same trapezoidal shape have been tried. In one approach all surfaces were black painted but the exit one facing the photosensor array which was polished. The other approach included a retroreflector (RR) layer coupled to the entrance face of the crystal powering the amount of transmitted light to the photosensors. Two coupling media between the scintillator and the SiPM array were used, namely direct coupling by means of optical grease and coupling through an array of light guides. Since the same operational voltage was supplied to the entire array, it was needed to equalize their gains before feeding their signals to the Data Acquisition system. Such a job was performed by means of 4 scalable Application Specific Circuits (ASICs). An energy resolution of about 24.4% has been achieved for the direct coupling with the RR layer together with a spatial resolution of approximately 2.9 mm at the detector center. With the light guides coupling the effects of image compression at the edges are significantly minimized, but worsening the energy resolution to about 33.1% with a spatial resolution nearing 4 mm at the detector center.