Speaker
Description
We report on the characterization of different types of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). These sensors are based on Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs) operating in Geiger regime. All the single SPAD cells have an integrating quenching resistor used to interrupt the avalanche effect lowering the inverse polarization tension. SiPMs are capable of detecting and resolving single photons. Thus, they are the technology of choice to equipe the dual RICH detector (dRICH) at the ePIC experiment at the future Electron-Ion Collider. One of down sides of SiPMs is the presence of a Dark Count Rate (DCR) caused by thermal electrons which also depends on the bias voltage applied to the sensor. Such an effect can be minimized by lowering temperature of the sensors. We will show several measurements of DCR at different temperatures (-20°C, -25°C, -30°C). Other sources of noise like Cross Talk between to matrix elements and Afterpulsing due to a subsequent signal caused by electrons produced in the avalanche effect are also evaluated. Furthermore, in order to estimate radiation damage to the sensors, we have exposed them to different doses of absorbed protons and neutrons using accelerators at the Trento and Legnaro facilities. The same measurements, repeated after irradiation, highlight the degradation in the performance of the tested sensors.
