Characterization and commissioning of the SST-1M camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
2017
Abstract The
Cherenkov Telescope Array(CTA), the next generation very high energy gamma-rays observatory, will consist of three types of
telescopes: large (LST), medium (MST) and small (SST) size
telescopes. The SSTs are dedicated to the observation of gamma-rays with energy between a few TeV and a few hundreds of TeV. The SST array is expected to have 70
telescopesof different designs. The single-mirror small size
telescope(
SST-1M) is one of the proposed
telescopedesigns under consideration for the SST array. It will be equipped with a 4 m diameter
segmented mirrordish and with an innovative camera based on
silicon photomultipliers(SiPMs). The challenge is not only to build a
telescopewith exceptional performance but to do it foreseeing its mass production. To address both of these challenges, the camera adopts innovative solutions both for the optical system and readout. The Photo-Detection Plane (PDP) of the camera is composed of 1296 pixels, each made of a hollow, hexagonal light guide coupled to a hexagonal SiPM designed by the University of Geneva and Hamamatsu. As no commercial ASIC would satisfy the CTA requirements when coupled to such a large sensor, dedicated
preamplifierelectronics have been designed. The readout electronics also use an innovative approach in
gamma-ray astronomyby adopting a fully digital approach. All signals coming from the PDP are digitized in a 250 MHz Fast ADC and stored in ring buffers waiting for a trigger decision to send them to the pre-processing server where calibration and higher level triggers will decide whether the data are stored. The latest generation of FPGAs is used to achieve high data rates and also to exploit all the flexibility of the system. As an example each event can be flagged according to its trigger pattern. All of these features have been demonstrated in laboratory measurements on realistic elements and the results of these measurements will be presented in this contribution.
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