Two main bottlenecks prevent time-domain diffuse optics instruments to reach their maximum performances, namely the limited light harvesting capability of the detection chain and the bounded data throughput of the timing electronics. In this work, for the first time to our knowledge, we overcome both those limitations using a probe-hosted large area silicon photomultiplier detector coupled to high-throughput timing electronics. The system performances were assessed based on international protocols for diffuse optical imagers showing better figures with respect to a state-of-the-art device. As a first step towards applications, proof-of-principle in-vivo brain activation measurements demonstrated superior signal-to-noise ratio as compared to current technologies.

中文翻译：

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探针托管的大面积硅光电倍增管和高通量定时电子器件，可增强性能，时域功能近红外光谱

两个主要瓶颈阻止了时域漫射光学仪器达到其最佳性能，即检测链的光收集能力有限以及定时电子设备的有限数据吞吐量。在这项工作中，就我们所知，这是我们第一次使用与高通量定时电子设备耦合的探头托管大面积硅光电倍增管检测器来克服这两个限制。系统性能是根据有关扩散光学成像仪的国际协议评估的，相对于最先进的设备，它能显示出更好的数字。作为迈向应用的第一步，原理上的活体内脑部激活测量显示出比当前技术优越的信噪比。