Silicon photomultipliers are novel solid state photodetectors that recently became commercially
available. The goal of this paper was to investigate their suitability for low light level detection
in miniaturized functional near-infrared spectroscopy instruments. Two measurement modules with a
footprint of 26×26 mm2 were built, and the signal-to-noise ratio was assessed for
variable source-detector separations between 25 and 65 mm on phantoms with similar optical
properties to those of a human head. These measurements revealed that the signal-to-noise ratio of
the raw signal was superior to an empirically derived design requirement for source-detector
separations up to 50 mm. An arterial arm occlusion was also performed on one of the authors
in vivo, to induce reproducible hemodynamic changes which confirmed the validity of
the measured signals. The proposed use of silicon photomultipliers in functional near-infrared
spectroscopy bears large potential for future development of precise, yet compact and modular
instruments, and affords improvements of the source-detector separation by 67% compared to
the commonly used 30 mm.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.