Proton Irradiation Damage and Annealing Effects in ON Semiconductor J-Series Silicon Photomultipliers

TL;DR

This study investigates how high-energy proton irradiation affects the performance and recovery of ON Semiconductor J-Series Silicon Photomultipliers, relevant for space applications, by analyzing dark current and annealing after irradiation.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of proton irradiation effects on ON Semiconductor SiPMs, including damage and annealing behaviors relevant for space missions.

Findings

Dark current increases with proton fluence

Self-annealing reduces damage over time

Performance degradation depends on radiation dose

Abstract

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have become popular light conversion devices in recent years due to their low bias voltage and sensitivity to wavelengths emitted from common scintillating materials. These properties make them particularly attractive for resource-constrained missions such as space-based detector applications. However the space radiation environment is known to be particularly harsh on semiconductor devices, where high particle fluences can degrade performance over time. The radiation hardness of a particular SiPM, manufactured by ON Semiconductor (formally SensL), has yet to be studied with high energy protons, which are native to the space radiation environment. To study these effects we have irradiated groups of two SiPMs to four different fluences of 800 MeV protons delivered by the accelerator at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Fluences of $1.68\times10^{9}$, $1.73\times10^{10}$, $6.91\times10^{10}$, and $1.73\times10^{11}$ protons cm$^{-2}$, and their corresponding estimated doses of $0.15$, $1.55$, $6.19$, and $15.5$ kRad, were chosen based on estimates of the potential exposure a SiPM might receive during an interplanetary space mission lasting 10 years. We report the effects these doses have on dark current and the self-annealing time.