I. Introduction and Motivation
For many years the exploration of the “knee” region (i.e., at an energy around ) of the Cosmic-Ray spectrum has been carried out by means of very large area experiments on Earth. These experiments measure the secondary particles produced by the interaction of the very-high energy cosmic particles with the atmosphere (see, e.g., [1]). Recently, several satellite-borne experiments have been proposed to perform direct measurements of the primary fluxes at and above the TeV region using different approaches [2]–[4]. Silicon-tungsten (Si-W) calorimeters represent an excellent solution for balloon- or satellite-borne experiments, given their very good dE/dx measurement capability, efficiency, linearity, compactness and low-voltage operation. An example of the maturity of this technology and of its current capabilities is given by the Si-W electromagnetic imaging calorimeter of the satellite-borne experiment PAMELA [5], [6].