  The light yield, the time resolution and the efficiency of different types of
scintillating tiles with direct Silicon Photomultiplier readout and
instrumented with a customised front-end electronics have been measured at the
Beam Test Facility of Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati and several test stands.
The results obtained with different configurations are presented. A time
resolution of the order of 300 ps, a light yield of more than 230
photo-electrons, and an efficiency better than 99.8 $\%$ are obtained with
$\sim 225$ cm$^2$ large area tiles. This technology is suitable for a wide
range of applications in high-energy physics, in particular for large area muon
and timing detectors.
