The silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) has been recently studied in the INFN laboratories of Bologna for Time of Flight (TOF) detectors in space missions. Low consumption, low cost, low weight, resistance to radiation damage and insensitivity tomagnetic fields are the advantages that lead to the choice of the SiPM to be used in conjunction with optical fibres for detecting the scintillation light of a space counter. The SiPM response to various light intensities has been studied in laboratory and it was compared to the PM response in orderto use it for scintillation light instead of a photomultiplier. The results were confirmed by a Monte Carlo.Nevertheless the SiPM gain depends on temperature and thermal stabilization of the device turns out to be necessary. A hybrid front-end circuit that amplifies the signal while controlling and stabilizing the device temperature has been developed and some tests are shown. A thermal electric cooler (TEC) module based on Peltier cell has been modeled. The TEC module operating in atmosphere showed it can stabilize the temperature of the SiPM to the chosen set-point (9±3K) in a few seconds.
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