Characterization of more than three years of in-orbit radiation damage of SiPMs on GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2 CubeSats

It is well known that silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are prone to radiation damage. With the increasing popularity of SiPMs among new spaceborne missions, especially on CubeSats, it is of paramount importance to characterize their performance in space environment. In this work, we report the in-or...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Ripa, Jakub, Dafcikova, Marianna, Kosik, Pavel, Münz, Filip, Ohno, Masanori, Galgoczi, Gabor, Werner, Norbert, Pal, Andras, Meszaros, Laszlo, Csak, Balazs, Fukazawa, Yasushi, Takahashi, Hiromitsu, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Nakazawa, Kazuhiro, Odaka, Hirokazu, Ichinohe, Yuto, Kapus, Jakub, Hudec, Jan, Frajt, Marcel, Rezenov, Maksim, Daniel, Vladimir, Svoboda, Petr, Dudas, Juraj, Sabol, Martin, Laszlo, Robert, Koleda, Martin, Duriskova, Michaela, Szakszonova, Lea, Kolar, Martin, Husarikova, Nikola, Breuer, Jean-Paul, Hroch, Filip, Vitek, Tomas, Vertat, Ivo, Urbanec, Tomas, Povalac, Ales, Kasal, Miroslav, Hanak, Peter, smelko, Miroslav, Topinka, Martin, Hsiang-Kuang Chang, Liu, Tsung-Che, Lin, Chih-Hsun, Chin-Ping, Hu, Che-Chih Tsao
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 01.11.2024
Subjects
Aerospace environments
Altitude
Cubesat
Earth orbital environments
Gamma ray astronomy
Gamma ray bursts
Gamma ray detectors
Gamma rays
Low earth orbits
Payloads
Photomultiplier tubes
Photon counters
Polar orbits
Radiation
Radiation damage
Scintillation counters
Solar flares
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Summary:It is well known that silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are prone to radiation damage. With the increasing popularity of SiPMs among new spaceborne missions, especially on CubeSats, it is of paramount importance to characterize their performance in space environment. In this work, we report the in-orbit ageing of SiPM arrays, so-called multi-pixel photon counters (MPPCs), using measurements acquired by the GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2 CubeSats at low Earth orbit (LEO) spanning over three years, which in duration is unique. GRBAlpha is a 1U CubeSat launched on March 22, 2021, to a 550 km altitude sun-synchronous polar orbit (SSO) carrying on board a gamma-ray detector based on CsI(Tl) scintillator readout by eight MPPCs and regularly detecting gamma-ray transients such as gamma-ray bursts and solar flares in the energy range of ~30-900 keV. VZLUSAT-2 is a 3U CubeSat launched on January 13, 2022 also to a 550 km altitude SSO carrying on board, among other payloads, two gamma-ray detectors similar to the one on GRBAlpha. We have flight-proven the Hamamatsu MPPCs S13360-3050 PE and demonstrated that MPPCs, shielded by 2.5 mm of PbSb alloy, can be used in an LEO environment on a scientific mission lasting beyond three years. This manifests the potential of MPPCs being employed in future satellites.
ISSN:2331-8422