Speaker
Description
The dual-radiator (dRICH) detector in the ePIC experiment at the upcoming Electron-Ion
Collider (EIC) will make use of SiPM sensors to detect the emitted Cherenkov light. The
photodetector will cover an area of approximately 3 m² with 3×3 mm² pixels, for a total of more
than 300,000 readout channels. This will represent the Jirst use of SiPMs for single-photon
detection in a collider experiment. SiPMs are chosen for their low cost and high photon
detection efJiciency, which remains stable even in the presence of a signiJicant magnetic Jield
(~1 T at the dRICH location).
However, as SiPMs are not radiation-hard, special care is required to preserve their singlephoton
counting capabilities and keep the dark count rate (DCR) under control over the course
of the ePIC experiment’s operation. This can be achieved by operating the SiPMs at low
temperatures and by mitigating radiation damage through high-temperature annealing cycles.
Additionally, the precise timing of SiPMs, combined with fast TDC electronics, helps in reducing
the impact of DCR as background noise and improves the signal-to-noise ratio.
In this talk, we present an overview of the ePIC-dRICH photodetector system with highlights
from the R&D performed for the operation of the SiPM optical readout in the ePIC experiment.
Special focus will be given to development and beam test results of a large-area prototype SiPM
readout plane consisting of a total of up to 2048 3x3 mm² sensors. The photodetector prototype
is modular and based on a novel EIC-driven photodetection unit (PDU) developed by INFN,
which integrates 256 SiPM pixel sensors, cooling and TDC electronics in a volume of ~ 5 x 5 x
14 cm³. Several PDU modules have been built and successfully tested with particle beams at
CERN-PS in October 2023 and in May 2024. The data have been collected with a complete chain
of front-end and readout electronics based on the ALCOR chip, developed by INFN Torino.
A description of the QA setup foreseen to perform quality tests on the matrices during the mass
production will also be given.
Details
Daniele De Gruttola, Associate Professor, Salerno INFN & University, Italy https://www.unisa.it
| Internet talk | No |
|---|---|
| Is this an abstract from experimental collaboration? | Yes |
| Name of experiment and experimental site | on behalf of the ePIC-dRICH Collaboration |
| Is the speaker for that presentation defined? | Yes |
