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

Journal Article · · Journal of Instrumentation
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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.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Contributing Organization:
Pierre Auger Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; FR02-04ER41300; FG02-99ER41107; SC0011689; 0450696
OSTI ID:
1764839
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-20-605-AD-E-TD; oai:inspirehep.net:1830247; TRN: US2206210
Journal Information:
Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 16, Issue 01; ISSN 1748-0221
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (11)

The cosmic-ray experiment KASCADE
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journal November 2003
The surface detector system of the Pierre Auger Observatory
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journal March 2008
Underground muon counters as a tool for composition analyses journal July 2008
The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory journal July 2015
Digital electronics for the Pierre Auger Observatory AMIGA muon counters journal April 2014
The Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory journal April 2011
The KASCADE-Grande experiment
  • Apel, W. D.; Arteaga, J. C.; Badea, A. F.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 620, Issue 2-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2010.03.147
journal August 2010
Photovoltaic monitoring system for Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array journal June 2018
Modeling scintillator and WLS fiber signals for fast Monte Carlo simulations
  • Sánchez, F. A.; Medina-Tanco, G.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 620, Issue 2-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2010.03.110
journal August 2010
Direct measurement of the muonic content of extensive air showers between $$\mathbf { 2\times 10^{17}}$$ and $$\mathbf {2\times 10^{18}}~$$eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory journal August 2020
AMIGA at the Auger Observatory: the scintillator module testing system journal June 2011

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Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Front-end electronics for detector readout
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cluster finding
calibration and fitting methods
Performance of High Energy Physics Detectors
Photon detectors for UV
visible and IR photons (solid-state) (PIN diodes
APDs
Si-PMTs
G-APDs
CCDs
EBCCDs
EMCCDs
CMOS imagers
etc)