In-orbit Radiation Damage Characterization of SiPMs in the GRID-02 CubeSat Detector

TL;DR

This paper presents in-orbit radiation damage characterization of SiPMs in a CubeSat detector, revealing increased dark current and noise levels over time, and demonstrating the positive impact of cooling on mitigating damage effects.

Contribution

It provides the first in-orbit quantitative analysis of radiation effects on SiPMs in space, specifically in the context of the GRID-02 CubeSat mission.

Findings

Dark current increased by ~100 μA/year per SiPM at 28.5 V and 5°C.

Noise level increased by ~7.5 keV/year.

Cooling reduced the current increase to ~40 μA/year at -20°C.

Abstract

Recently, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have been used in several space-borne missions, owing to their solid state, compact size, low operating voltage, and insensitivity to magnetic fields. However, operating SiPMs in space results in radiation damage and degraded performance. In-orbit quantitative studies on these effects are limited. In this study, we present in-orbit SiPM characterization results obtained by the second detector of the Gamma-Ray Integrated Detectors (GRID-02), which was launched on 6 November 2020. An increase in dark current of $\sim$100 $\mu$A/year per SiPM chip (model MicroFJ-60035-TSV) at 28.5 V and 5 $^{\circ}$C was observed. Consequently, the overall noise level (sigma) of the GRID-02 detector increased by $\sim$7.5 keV/year. The estimate of this increase is $\sim$40 $\mu$A/year per SiPM chip at -20 $^{\circ}$C, highlighting the positive effect of using a cooling system.