_version_ 1866909580919832576
author Ripa, Jakub
Dafcikova, Marianna
Kosik, Pavel
Munz, 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
Chang, Hsiang-Kuang
Liu, Tsung-Che
Lin, Chih-Hsun
Hu, Chin-Ping
Tsao, Che-Chih
author_facet Ripa, Jakub
Dafcikova, Marianna
Kosik, Pavel
Munz, 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
Chang, Hsiang-Kuang
Liu, Tsung-Che
Lin, Chih-Hsun
Hu, Chin-Ping
Tsao, Che-Chih
contents Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are prone to radiation damage which causes an increase of dark count rate. This leads to an increase in low-energy threshold in a gamma-ray detector combining SiPM and a scintillator. Despite this drawback, they are becoming preferred for scintillator-based gamma-ray detectors on CubeSats due to their low operation voltage, small size, linear response to low light intensity and fast response. This increasing popularity of SiPMs among new spaceborne missions makes it important to characterize their long-term performance in the space environment. In this work, we report the change of the dark count rate and low-energy threshold of S13360-3050 PE multi-pixel photon counters (MPPCs) by Hamamatsu, using measurements acquired by the GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2 CubeSats at low Earth orbit (LEO) spanning over three years. Such a long measurement of the performance of MPPCs in space has not been published before. 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 535 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 LEO environment on a scientific mission lasting beyond three years. This manifests the potential of MPPCs being employed in future satellites.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_00607
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Characterization of more than three years of in-orbit radiation damage of SiPMs on GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2 CubeSats
Ripa, Jakub
Dafcikova, Marianna
Kosik, Pavel
Munz, 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
Chang, Hsiang-Kuang
Liu, Tsung-Che
Lin, Chih-Hsun
Hu, Chin-Ping
Tsao, Che-Chih
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Detectors
Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are prone to radiation damage which causes an increase of dark count rate. This leads to an increase in low-energy threshold in a gamma-ray detector combining SiPM and a scintillator. Despite this drawback, they are becoming preferred for scintillator-based gamma-ray detectors on CubeSats due to their low operation voltage, small size, linear response to low light intensity and fast response. This increasing popularity of SiPMs among new spaceborne missions makes it important to characterize their long-term performance in the space environment. In this work, we report the change of the dark count rate and low-energy threshold of S13360-3050 PE multi-pixel photon counters (MPPCs) by Hamamatsu, using measurements acquired by the GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2 CubeSats at low Earth orbit (LEO) spanning over three years. Such a long measurement of the performance of MPPCs in space has not been published before. 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 535 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 LEO environment on a scientific mission lasting beyond three years. This manifests the potential of MPPCs being employed in future satellites.
title Characterization of more than three years of in-orbit radiation damage of SiPMs on GRBAlpha and VZLUSAT-2 CubeSats
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Detectors
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.00607