The High Voltage Splitter board for the JUNO SPMT system

TL;DR

This paper details the design, implementation, and testing of a high voltage splitter board for the JUNO experiment's small PMT system, ensuring long-term stability and reliable operation over 20 years.

Contribution

It introduces a novel high voltage splitter board tailored for large-scale neutrino detector systems, emphasizing design considerations for long-term stability and high channel count.

Findings

The HVS board meets stability and performance requirements for 20-year operation.

Successful handling of high voltage and large channel count in a compact design.

Effective production and quality control methods established for large-scale deployment.

Abstract

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) in southern China is designed to study neutrinos from nuclear reactors and natural sources to address fundamental questions in neutrino physics. Achieving its goals requires continuous operation over a 20-year period. The small photomultiplier tube (small PMT or SPMT) system is a subsystem within the experiment composed of 25600 3-inch PMTs and their associated readout electronics. The High Voltage Splitter (HVS) is the first board on the readout chain of the SPMT system and services the PMTs by providing high voltage for biasing and by decoupling the generated physics signal from the high-voltage bias for readout, which is then fed to the front-end board. The necessity to handle high voltage, manage a large channel count, and operate stably for 20 years imposes significant constraints on the physical design of the HVS. This paper serves as a comprehensive documentation of the HVS board: its role in the SPMT readout system, the challenges in its design, performance and reliability metrics, and the methods employed for production and quality control.