Design of an Efficient, High-Throughput Photomultiplier Tube Testing Facility for the IceCube Upgrade

The IceCube Collaboration

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

The IceCube Upgrade is an extension of the IceCube detector at the geographic South Pole. It consists of seven new strings with novel instrumentation. More than 430 multi-PMT optical modules called "mDOMs", housing 24 3-inch PMTs each, will be produced for the Upgrade. This will require testing and pre-calibration on a short timescale of more than 10,000 PMTs prior to assembly and deployment. We present the design of a PMT testing facility that enables simultaneous testing of roughly 100 PMTs per day at temperatures down to -20°C. The design is implemented at RWTH Aachen University and TU Dortmund University in parallel to achieve a throughput of up to 1,000 PMTs per week. This will enable a steady supply of tested PMTs to the production sites, which is critical for the Upgrade, as well as the future IceCube-Gen2 project.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1056
JournalProceedings of Science
Volume395
StatePublished - 18 Mar 2022
Event37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2021 - Virtual, Berlin, Germany
Duration: 12 Jul 202123 Jul 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Design of an Efficient, High-Throughput Photomultiplier Tube Testing Facility for the IceCube Upgrade'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this