CHEC: A Compact High Energy Camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

TL;DR

CHEC is a compact, high-energy camera designed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, featuring advanced electronics and SiPMs to enhance gamma-ray detection capabilities in ground-based telescopes.

Contribution

The paper introduces CHEC, a novel compact camera with high pixel count and advanced electronics, optimized for small-sized telescopes in the Cherenkov Telescope Array.

Findings

First Cherenkov light detection with CHEC prototype in 2015

Waveform readout at over 600 events per second

Ongoing development with latest SiPM technology

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array will provide unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution to gamma rays across orders of magnitude in energy. Above 1 TeV up to around 300 TeV an array of Small-Sized Telescopes (SSTs) will cover several kilometres on the ground. The Compact High-Energy Camera (CHEC) is a proposed option for the camera of the SSTs. CHEC contains 2048 pixels of physical size about 6 mm x 6 mm, leading to a field of view of over 8 degrees. Electronics based on custom ASICs (TARGET) and FPGAs sample incoming signals at a gigasample per second and provide a flexible triggering scheme. Waveforms for every pixel in every event are read out without loss at over 600 events per second. A telescope prototype in Meudon, Paris, saw first Cherenkov light from air showers in late 2015, using the first CHEC prototype. Research and development for CHEC is currently focussed on taking advantage of the latest generation of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs).