Radiation damage assessment of SensL SiPMs

Abstract

Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are quickly replacing traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) as the readout of choice for gamma-ray scintillation detectors in space. While they offer substantial size, weight and power saving, they have shown to be susceptible to radiation damage. SensL SiPMs with different cell sizes were irradiated with 64 MeV protons and 8 MeV electrons. In general, results show larger cell sizes were more susceptible to radiation damage with the largest 50μm SiPMs showing the greatest increase in current as a function of dose. Current increases were observed for doses as low at ∼2 rad(Si) for protons and ∼20 rad(Si) for electrons. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Strontium Iodide Radiation Instrument (SIRI-1) experienced a 528μA increase in the bias current of the onboard 2x2 SensL J-series 60035 SiPM over its one-year mission in sun-synchronous orbit. The work here focuses on the increase in bulk current observed with increasing radiation damage and was performed to better quantify this effect as a function of dose for future mission. These include the future NRL mission SIRI-2, the follow on to SIRI-1, Glowbug and the GAGG Radiation Instrument (GARI).