Onboard Calibration Circuit for the Front-end Electronics of DAMPE BGO Calorimeter

TL;DR

This paper presents an onboard calibration circuit for DAMPE BGO Calorimeter's front-end electronics, achieving high precision and dynamic range, and verified through environmental testing for space deployment.

Contribution

A novel onboard calibration circuit design for DAMPE BGO Calorimeter's front-end electronics, enabling precise in-space calibration and testing.

Findings

Achieved 0-30 pC dynamic range with 5 fC precision

Successfully tested and verified through environmental tests

Ready for onboard calibration in space mission

Abstract

An onboard calibration circuit has been designed for the front-end electronics (FEE) of DAMPE BGO Calorimeter. It is mainly composed of a 12 bit DAC, an operation amplifier and an analog switch. Test results showed that a dynamic range of 0 ~ 30 pC with a precision of 5 fC was achieved, which meets the requirements of the front-end electronics. Furthermore, it is used to test the trigger function of the FEEs. The calibration circuit has been implemented and verified by all the environmental tests for both Qualification Model and Flight Model of DAMPE. The DAMPE satellite will be launched at the end of 2015 and the calibration circuit will perform onboard calibration in space.