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Volume 24
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10.3390/s24154990
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Article

Radiation Damage on Silicon Photomultipliers from Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation of Low-Earth Orbit Operations

by
Stefano Merzi
1,*,
Fabio Acerbi
1,
Corinne Aicardi
2,
Daniela Fiore
3,
Vincent Goiffon
4,
Alberto Giacomo Gola
1,
Olivier Marcelot
4,
Alex Materne
2 and
Olivier Saint-Pe
3
1
Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Center for Sensors and Devices, Via Sommarive 18, 38123 Trento, Italy
2
Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), 18, Avenue Edouard Belin, 31076 Toulouse, France
3
AIRBUS Defence and Space, 31, Rue des Cosmonautes, 31076 Toulouse, France
4
Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), 10, Avenue Édouard Belin, 31076 Toulouse, France
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2024, 24(15), 4990; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24154990
Submission received: 18 June 2024 / Revised: 25 July 2024 / Accepted: 30 July 2024 / Published: 1 August 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Semiconductor Radiation Detectors: Sensors, Readout Electronics and Applications)
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Abstract

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are single photon detectors that gained increasing interest in many applications as an alternative to photomultiplier tubes. In the field of space experiments, where volume, weight and power consumption are a major constraint, their advantages like compactness, ruggedness, and their potential to achieve high quantum efficiency from UV to NIR makes them ideal candidates for spaceborne, low photon flux detectors. During space missions however, SiPMs are usually exposed to high levels of radiation, both ionizing and non-ionizing, which can deteriorate the performance of these detectors over time. The goal of this work is to compare process and layout variation of SiPMs in terms of their radiation damage effects to identify the features that helps reduce the deterioration of the performance and develop the next generation of more radiation-tolerant detectors. To do this, we used protons and X-rays to irradiate several Near Ultraviolet High-Density (NUV-HD) SiPMs with small areas (single microcell, 0.2 × 0.2 mm2 and 1 × 1 mm2) produced at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy. We performed online current-voltage measurements right after each irradiation step, and a complete functional characterization before and after irradiation. We observed that the main contribution to performance degradation in space applications comes from proton damage in the form of an increase in primary dark count rate (DCR) proportional to the proton fluence and a reduction in activation energy. In this context, small active area devices show a lower DCR before and after irradiation, and we propose light or charge-focusing mechanisms as future developments for high-sensitivity radiation-tolerant detectors.
Keywords: silicon photomultiplier; SiPM; single-photon; SPAD; proton; X-ray; radiation damage silicon photomultiplier; SiPM; single-photon; SPAD; proton; X-ray; radiation damage

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MDPI and ACS Style

Merzi, S.; Acerbi, F.; Aicardi, C.; Fiore, D.; Goiffon, V.; Gola, A.G.; Marcelot, O.; Materne, A.; Saint-Pe, O. Radiation Damage on Silicon Photomultipliers from Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation of Low-Earth Orbit Operations. Sensors 2024, 24, 4990. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24154990

AMA Style

Merzi S, Acerbi F, Aicardi C, Fiore D, Goiffon V, Gola AG, Marcelot O, Materne A, Saint-Pe O. Radiation Damage on Silicon Photomultipliers from Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation of Low-Earth Orbit Operations. Sensors. 2024; 24(15):4990. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24154990

Chicago/Turabian Style

Merzi, Stefano, Fabio Acerbi, Corinne Aicardi, Daniela Fiore, Vincent Goiffon, Alberto Giacomo Gola, Olivier Marcelot, Alex Materne, and Olivier Saint-Pe. 2024. "Radiation Damage on Silicon Photomultipliers from Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation of Low-Earth Orbit Operations" Sensors 24, no. 15: 4990. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24154990

APA Style

Merzi, S., Acerbi, F., Aicardi, C., Fiore, D., Goiffon, V., Gola, A. G., Marcelot, O., Materne, A., & Saint-Pe, O. (2024). Radiation Damage on Silicon Photomultipliers from Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation of Low-Earth Orbit Operations. Sensors, 24(15), 4990. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24154990

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