Characterization of two SiPM arrays from Hamamatsu and Onsemi for liquid argon detector

TL;DR

This study evaluates two SiPM arrays from Hamamatsu and Onsemi for use in liquid argon detectors, developing cryogenic electronics and measuring key performance metrics at 87 K to assess their suitability for dark matter and neutrino detection.

Contribution

The paper presents the first successful development of a cryogenic read-out system for 1-inch SiPM arrays at 87 K and compares key performance characteristics of two commercial SiPM arrays in liquid argon.

Findings

Cryogenic electronics system operates at 87 K with low power dissipation.

Measured SiPM characteristics include DCR, Vbd, SPE, SNR, and correlated signals.

Both SiPM arrays show promising performance for liquid argon detector applications.

Abstract

Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), a new type of photosensor, is considered a substitute for traditional photomultiplier tube (PMT) in the next generation of dark matter and neutrino detectors, especially in noble gas detectors like liquid argon. However, the design of compact SiPM arrays and their cryogenic electronics that can work in liquid argon is barely developed. Thus, two candidate SiPM arrays from Hamamatsu and Onsemi were selected to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the design. In this work, we successfully developed a cryogenic electronics read-out system that connects and works with 1-inch 4$\times$4 SiPM arrays at 87~K. The power dissipation of amplifiers is less than 10 $\mu$W/mm$^2$. Furthermore, multiply significant characteristics of both types of SiPM arrays were measured at liquid argon temperature, such as dark count rate (DCR), breakdown voltage (V${_{bd}}$), single photoelectron (SPE) performance, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and correlated signal probability.