Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPM) are regarded as novel photo-detectors toreplace conventional Photo-Multiplier Tubes (PMTs). However, the breakdownvoltage dependence on the ambient temperature results in a gain variation of$\sim$3$\% /^{\circ} \mathrm C$. This severely limits the application of thisdevice in experiments with wide range of operating temperature, especially inspace missions. An experimental setup was established to investigate thetemperature and bias voltage dependence of gain for the Multi-Pixel PhotonCounter (MPPC). The gain and breakdown voltage dependence on operatingtemperature of an MPPC can be approximated by a linear function, which issimilar to the behavior of a zener diode. The measured temperature coefficientof the breakdown voltage is $(59.4 \pm 0.4$ mV)$/^{\circ} \mathrm C$. Accordingto this fact, an analog power supply based on two zener diodes and anoperational amplifier was designed with a positive temperature coefficient. Themeasured temperature dependence for the designed power supply is between 63.65to 64.61~mV/$^{\circ} \mathrm C$ at different output voltages. The designedpower supply can bias the MPPC at an over-voltage with a temperature variationof $\sim$ 5~mV$/^{\circ} \mathrm C$. The gain variation of the MPPC biased atover-voltage of 2~V was reduced from 2.8$\% /^{\circ} \mathrm C$ to 0.3$\%/^{\circ} \mathrm C$ when biased the MPPC with the designed power supply forgain control. Detailed design and performance of the analog power supply in thetemperature range from -42.7$^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$ to 20.9$^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$will be discussed in this paper.
展开▼
