July 1, 2025Open Access

Radiation Hardness Assessment and Annealing Strategies for Silicon Photomultiplier Sensors for the Terzina Telescope on-board the NUSES space mission

Key Points

Detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays improved with optimized silicon photomultipliers, reducing light noise and enhancing signal quality.
Measurements used 50 MeV proton beam and Strontium-90 beta source to simulate space radiation effects on the sensors.
Study involves novel annealing methods to counteract radiation damage on silicon photomultipliers in the Terzina telescope.
Findings support the feasibility of future space missions using silicon photomultipliers to capture faint cosmic signals.

Abstract

Abstract NUSES is a pathfinder for new satellite platforms developed by THALES and cutting-edge photo sensing technologies, such as SiPM and their associated low-power-consuming electronics. It is financed by the Italian Ministry and conducted by the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), INFN sections and the University of Geneva. NUSES hosts two payloads: Ziré is devoted to low-energy cosmic rays to investigate aspects related to space weather, and gamma-rays from gamma-ray bursts; the Terzina telescope will achieve the first observation from space of the Cherenkov light emitted by atmospheric showers induced by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) within its field of view. Terzina might catch also a few Earth-skimming neutrinos above about 100 PeV. This faint light may only be detected by Terzina from a sun-synchronous orbit at 535 km of altitude while pointing to the limb and viewing the dark side of the earth and atmosphere. In such a configuration, this space-based telescope would not be constrained by the day-night cycle, unlike ground-based Cherenkov telescopes or payloads in non-polar orbit. Terzina is a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with dual mirror optics with a 935 mm effective focal length and a primary mirror with a diameter of 430 mm. Its SiPM-based camera is composed of 2 rows of 5 tiles of 8 × 8 SiPM 3x3 mm 2 pixels. The University of Geneva collaborated with the FBK Research Foundation to define these tiles. We measured in the laboratory the equivalent effect of radiation in space on the SiPM. Understanding the light noise in situ is vital for future larger missions or constellations of such satellites in the plans in the US and Europe and also for other missions employing SiPMs. For this study we utilized a 50 MeV proton beam and a beta-radioactive source of Strontium-90. As a matter of fact, radiation damage increases the DCR, and consequently to keep the signal-to-noise ratio constant the trigger threshold has to be increased. However, we developed an annealing approach suitable for a space-based middle-size satellite to limit the effect of radiation damage while efficiently lowering the SiPM’s energy detection threshold.

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