Analog and digital SiPMs have revolutionized the field of radiation instrumentation by replacing both avalanche photodiodes and photomultiplier tubes in many applications. However, multiple applications require greater performance than the current SiPMs are capable of, for example timing resolution for time-of-flight positron emission tomography and time-of-flight computed tomography, and mitigation of the large output capacitance of SiPM array for large-scale time projection chambers for liquid argon and liquid xenon experiments. In this contribution, the case will be made that 3D photon-to-digital converters, also known as 3D digital SiPMs, have a potentially superior performance over analog and 2D digital SiPMs. A review of 3D photon-to-digital converters is presented along with various applications where they can make a difference, such as time-of-flight medical imaging systems and low-background experiments in noble liquids. Finally, a review of the key design choices that must be made to obtain an optimized 3D photon-to-digital converter for radiation instrumentation, more specifically the single-photon avalanche diode array, the CMOS technology, the quenching circuit, the time-to-digital converter, the digital signal processing and the system level integration, are discussed in detail.

中文翻译：

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动机和未来工作

模拟和数字SiPM通过在许多应用中取代雪崩光电二极管和光电倍增管，彻底改变了辐射仪器领域。但是，多种应用需要比当前的SiPM更高的性能，例如飞行时间正电子发射断层扫描和飞行时间计算机断层扫描的定时分辨率，以及减轻SiPM阵列大输出电容的能力。标度时间投影室，用于液氩和液氙实验。在此贡献中，将证明3D光子数字转换器（也称为3D数字SiPM）具有比模拟和2D数字SiPM更高的潜在性能。本文对3D光子至数字转换器以及可能会有所作为的各种应用进行了概述，例如飞行时间医学成像系统和稀有液体中的低背景实验。最后，回顾了为获得用于辐射仪器的优化3D光子至数字转换器而必须做出的关键设计选择，尤其是单光子雪崩二极管阵列，CMOS技术，淬灭电路，详细讨论了数字转换器，数字信号处理和系统级集成。