In-orbit radiation damage characterization of SiPMs in the GRID-02 CubeSat detector

Recently, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have been used in several space-borne missions, owing to their solid state, compact size, low operating voltage, and insensitivity to magnetic fields. However, operating SiPMs in space results in radiation damage and degraded performance. In-orbit quantitative studies on these effects are limited. In this study, we present in-orbit SiPM characterization results obtained by the second detector of the Gamma-Ray Integrated Detectors (GRID-02), which was launched on 6 November 2020. An increase in dark current of ∼100 μA/year per SiPM chip (model MicroFJ-60035-TSV) at 28.5 V and 5 °C was observed. Consequently, the overall noise level (sigma) of the GRID-02 detector increased by ∼7.5 keV/year. The estimate of this increase is ∼40 μA/year per SiPM chip at −20 °C, highlighting the positive effect of using a cooling system.