Performance of silicon photomultiplers with the CMS HCAL front-end electronics

We have measured the performance of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) together with the front-end electronics developed for the Compact Muon Solenoid hadron calorimeter. We find a clean separation of the single PE peak above pedestal noise fluctuations, providing a signal to noise of about 8. The SiPMs may be useful in the near term for readout of the outer (HO) scintillators to significantly enhance the sensitivity to minimum ionizing particles for use in the muon trigger. In the longer term, the SiPMs may be useful for upgrading the detector to accommodate a luminosity upgrade.