Low-cost and miniaturized temperature compensation system for nuclear applications

Facilities using nuclear radiation and detectors require stability of detector response irrespective of the ambient conditions. This stability of radiation detector output is crucial for applications requiring precise monitoring of radiation. The paper presents the development and performance validation of an analogue feedback circuit designed to compensate for the effect of temperature variations in Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) based detectors and measurement systems. The presented circuit uses feedback from a temperature sensor to enable a linear compensation to control the bias voltage for the charge pump-based bias supply. The circuit was tested using a scintillator coupled to a 2 × 2 array of SiPMs and tested using a Caesium-137 radioactive source for checking the stability of the detector output. The system was tested over a temperature range from 5 to 55 °C. Considering this broad range, this circuit was calibrated for different temperature ranges allowing the user to set the compensation depending on the temperature range of interest.