NanoArduSiPM: A Miniaturized All-in-One Scintillation-Based Particle Detector

NanoArduSiPM is a compact, all-in-one particle detector designed to integrate scintillation-based detection with online and local signal processing. Building on previous generations of the ArduSiPM (Architected Detection Unit for Silicon Photomultipliers) technology, this third upgrade introduces a significant miniaturization of the system while enhancing performance. The detector combines a Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) with a System-on-Chip (SoC) architecture, allowing signal acquisition and processing and data transmission without the need for external units. The analog front-end includes a low-noise amplifier, a fast discriminator and a peak-hold circuit, enabling precise digitization of fast optical pulses. Signal reconstruction linearity and timing performance have been preserved despite the reduced form factor. The internal analog-to-digital (ADC) converter is calibrated for accurate amplitude measurement and the costumed analog electronics, that precede the SoC, are sufficiently fast to resolve single photoelectrons in typical SiPM signals, ensuring compatibility with the SoC’s performance capabilities. Furthermore, by combining threshold scans and ADC spectrum measurements, the system reliably extracts photoelectron amplitudes and confirms the consistency of the analog and digital signal paths. In conclusion the compact design, firmware flexibility and embedded data handling make NanoArduSiPM suitable for deployment in space platforms, remote sensing applications and distributed radiation monitoring networks.