Development of a SiPM Camera for a Schwarzschild-Couder Cherenkov Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Abstract

We present the development of a novel 11328 pixel silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) camera for use with a ground-based Cherenkov telescope with Schwarzschild-Couder optics as a possible medium-sized telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The finely pixelated camera samples air-shower images with more than twice the optical resolution of cameras that are used in current Cherenkov telescopes. Advantages of the higher resolution will be a better event reconstruction yielding improved background suppression and angular resolution of the reconstructed gamma-ray events, which is crucial in morphology studies of, for example, Galactic particle accelerators and the search for gamma-ray halos around extragalactic sources. Packing such a large number of pixels into an area of only half a square meter and having a fast readout directly attached to the back of the sensors is a challenging task. For the prototype camera development, SiPMs from Hamamatsu with through silicon via (TSV) technology are used. We give a status report of the camera design and highlight a number of technological advancements that made this development possible.

arXiv comment8 pages, 5 figures, In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands. All CTA contributions at arXiv:1508.05894

References in corpus (2)

• Wide field aplanatic two-mirror telescopes for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy
• TARGET: A multi-channel digitizer chip for very-high-energy gamma-ray telescopes

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• Silicon Photomultiplier Research and Development Studies for the Large Size Telescope of the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Camera design and performance of the prototype Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Development and operations of INFN optical modules for the SCT Telescope camera proposed for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory
• Cherenkov Telescope Array Status Report