Design, upgrade and characterization of the silicon photomultiplier front-end for the AMIGA detector at the Pierre Auger Observatory

Authors

A. Aab, Radboud University Nijmegen
P. Abreu, Instituto Superior Técnico
M. Aglietta, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino
J. M. Albury, The University of Adelaide
I. Allekotte, Instituto Balseiro
A. Almela, Universidad Nacional de San Martin
B. Fick, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
D. F. Nitz, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
A. Puyleart, Michigan Technological University
et al.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-25-2021

Department

Department of Physics

Abstract

AMIGA (Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array) is an upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory to complement the study of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) by measuring the muon content of extensive air showers (EAS). It consists of an array of 61 water Cherenkov detectors on a denser spacing in combination with underground scintillation detectors used for muon density measurement. Each detector is composed of three scintillation modules, with 10 m2 detection area per module, buried at 2.3 m depth, resulting in a total detection area of 30 m2. Silicon photomultiplier sensors (SiPM) measure the amount of scintillation light generated by charged particles traversing the modules. In this paper, the design of the front-end electronics to process the signals of those SiPMs and test results from the laboratory and from the Pierre Auger Observatory are described. Compared to our previous prototype, the new electronics shows a higher performance, higher efficiency and lower power consumption, and it has a new acquisition system with increased dynamic range that allows measurements closer to the shower core. The new acquisition system is based on the measurement of the total charge signal that the muonic component of the cosmic ray shower generates in the detector.

Publisher's Statement

© 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abcaa4

Publication Title

Journal of Instrumentation

Recommended Citation

Aab, A., Abreu, P., Aglietta, M., Albury, J., Allekotte, I., Almela, A., Fick, B., Nitz, D. F., Puyleart, A., & et al. (2021). Design, upgrade and characterization of the silicon photomultiplier front-end for the AMIGA detector at the Pierre Auger Observatory. Journal of Instrumentation, 16(1). http://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/16/01/P01026
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/14642

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Publisher's PDF