In-orbit Radiation Damage Characterization of SiPMs in the GRID-02 CubeSat Detector

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Zheng, Xutao, Gao, Huaizhong, Wen, Jiaxing, Zeng, Ming, Pan, Xiaofan, Xu, Dacheng, Liu, Yihui, Zhang, Yuchong, Peng, Haowei, Jiang, Yuchen, Long, Xiangyun, Lu, Di'an, Yang, Dongxin, Feng, Hua, Zeng, Zhi, Cang, Jirong, Yang, Tian, GRID Collaboration
• Format: Paper Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 11.10.2022
• Subjects: Aerospace environments; Cooling systems; Cubesat; Dark current; Gamma rays; Noise levels; Performance degradation; Photomultiplier tubes; Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Radiation; Radiation damage; Scintillation counters; Sensors
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2205.10506

Recently, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have been used in several space-borne missions, owing to their solid state, compact size, low operating voltage, and insensitivity to magnetic fields. However, operating SiPMs in space results in radiation damage and degraded performance. In-orbit quantitative studies on these effects are limited. In this study, we present in-orbit SiPM characterization results obtained by the second detector of the Gamma-Ray Integrated Detectors (GRID-02), which was launched on 6 November 2020. An increase in dark current of \(\sim\)100 \(\mu\)A/year per SiPM chip (model MicroFJ-60035-TSV) at 28.5 V and 5 \(^{\circ}\)C was observed. Consequently, the overall noise level (sigma) of the GRID-02 detector increased by \(\sim\)7.5 keV/year. The estimate of this increase is \(\sim\)40 \(\mu\)A/year per SiPM chip at -20 \(^{\circ}\)C, highlighting the positive effect of using a cooling system.