Study of Silicon Photomultipliers in Low Earth Orbit

L. FINAZZI; G. SANCA; F. G. MARLASCA; M. BARELLA; F. IZRAELEVITCH; P. LEVY; F. GOLMAR

Cordoba

Conferencia; Argentine Conference on Electronics CAE-2023; 2023

The LabOSat collaboration aims to increase the TechnologyReadiness Level of electronic devices and components for spaceborneapplications in Low Earth Orbits. Since 2014, the collaborationhas tested different electronic components in spaceenvironments using different versions of its flagship testingplatform: LabOSat-01. Some of the electronic components testedin the past include resistive switching memories and dosimetersbased on field-effect transistors. A daughter board was developedfor LabOSat-01, which was used to characterize four ONSEMIMicroFC-60035-SMT Silicon Photomultipliers in DC mode. EachSilicon Photomultiplier was enclosed in a light-tight aluminumhousing along with an LED to test it under controlled illumination.In this Proceeding, we report the results obtained after 2 and ahalf years (958 days) of measurements of Silicon Photomultiplierperformance in Low Earth Orbit. The temperature range of theelectronics and sensors was -7 ºC to 4 ºC. The DC-DC boostconverters used to bias the Silicon Photomultipliers remainedoperational at the set bias voltage of 29.1 V. An increase ofexpected Silicon Photomultiplier current under various LEDilluminations was observed and these values increased withmission time. Several hypotheses are under evaluation, likegradual damage to the electronics, to the light-tight housings,or both.