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

• Main Authors: Halve, Lasse, Werthebach, Johannes
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2021
• Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena astro-ph.HE; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics astro-ph.IM; FOS Physical sciences; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2107.09954; https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.09954

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. : Presented at the 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2021). See arXiv:2107.06966 for all IceCube contributions