Diffuse optical imaging and tomography based upon frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy (fdNIRS) is used to noninvasively measure tissue structure and function through quantitative absolute measurements of tissue optical absorption and scattering. Here we describe how utilizing a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) detector for fdNIRS improves performance. We discuss the operation of SiPMs, how they differ from other fdNIRS photodetectors, and show theoretically that SiPMs offer similar sensitivity to photomultiplier tube (PMT) detectors while having a higher dynamic range and lower cost, size, and operating voltage. With respect to avalanche photodiode (APD) detectors, theoretical and experimental data shows drastically increased signal to noise ratio performance, up to 25dB on human breast, head, and muscle tissue. Finally, we extend the dynamic range (∼10dB) of the SiPM through a nonlinear calibration technique which reduced absorption error by a mean 16 percentage points.

中文翻译：

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优化用于频域近红外光谱的硅光电倍增管的灵敏度和动态范围

基于频域近红外光谱（fdNIRS）的漫射光学成像和层析成像技术可通过对组织光学吸收和散射进行定量绝对测量来无创地测量组织结构和功能。在这里，我们描述了如何将硅光电倍增管（SiPM）检测器用于fdNIRS来提高性能。我们讨论了SiPM的操作，它们与其他fdNIRS光电探测器的区别，并从理论上证明了SiPM具有与光电倍增管（PMT）探测器相似的灵敏度，同时具有更高的动态范围以及更低的成本，尺寸和工作电压。对于雪崩光电二极管（APD）检测器，理论和实验数据表明，信噪比性能急剧提高，在人的胸部，头部和肌肉组织上达到25dB。最后，