title: Improvement of sensitivity in continuous wave near infra-red spectroscopy systems by using silicon photomultipliers.
abstract: We experimentally analyze the signal-to-noise ratio of continuous wave (CW) near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) reflectance systems based on light emitting diodes and silicon photomultipliers for high performance low cost NIRS biomedical systems. We show that under suitable experimental conditions such systems exhibit a high SNR, which allows an SDS of 7 cm, to our knowledge the largest ever demonstrated in a CW-NIRs system.
authors.affiliation: IMM, CNR, VIII Strada 5, Catania, 95121, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pagano
authors.affiliation: IMM, CNR, VIII Strada 5, Catania, 95121, Italy.
authors.forename: Sebania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Libertino
authors.affiliation: IMS R&D, STMicroelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, Catania, 95121, Italy.
authors.forename: Delfo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sanfilippo
authors.affiliation: IMS R&D, STMicroelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, Catania, 95121, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fallica
authors.affiliation: IMM, CNR, VIII Strada 5, Catania, 95121, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lombardo
keywords: (040.6040) Silicon; (110.0113) Imaging through turbid media; (120.3890) Medical optics instrumentation; (230.5160) Photodetectors; (290.1350) Backscattering; (300.6340) Spectroscopy, infrared