A large-area SiPM readout plane for the ePIC-dRICH detector at the EIC: Realisation and beam test results

The current status of the R&D performed for the ePIC-dRICH detector at the EIC is presented. A special focus will be given to the beam test results obtained with the dRICH prototype SiPM optical readout. A large-area readout plane consisting of a total of 1280 3x3mm^2 SiPM sensors was built and tested with particle beams at CERN-PS in October 2023. The modular photodetector is based on a novel EIC-driven prototype photodetection unit (PDU) developed by INFN, which integrates 256 SiPM pixel sensors, cooling and TDC electronics in a volume of roughly 5x5x14 cm^3. The data have been collected with a complete chain of front-end and readout electronics based on the ALCOR chip, developed by INFN Torino. The features of the PDU and the performance of the full dRICH SiPM prototype system will be highlighted.