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©2017 IOP Science Artículo firmado por más de diez autores The successful installation, commissioning, and operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory would not have been possible without the strong commitment and effort from the technical and administrative staff in Malargue. We are very grateful to the following agencies and organizations for financial support:; Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica (ANPCyT), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET), Gobierno de la Provincia de Mendoza, Municipalidad de Malargue, NDM Holdings and Valle Las Lenas, in gratitude for their continuing cooperation over land access, Argentina; the Australian Research Council; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP), Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Grants No. 2010/07359-6 and No. 1999/05404-3, Ministerio de Ciencia e Tecnologia (MCT), Brazil; Grant No. MSMT CR LG15014, LO1305 and LM2015038 and the Czech Science Foundation Grant No. 14-17501S, Czech Republic; Centre de Calcul IN2P3/CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Conseil Regional Ile-de-France, Departement Physique Nucleaire et Corpusculaire (PNC-IN2P3/CNRS), Departement Sciences de l'Univers (SDU-INSU/CNRS), Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP) Grant No. LABEXANR-10-LABX-63, within the Investissements d'Avenir Programme Grant No. ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02, France; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Finanzministerium Baden-Wurttemberg, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren (HGF), Ministerium fur Wissenschaft und Forschung, Nordrhein Westfalen, Ministerium fur Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Istituto Nazi, AMIGA (Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array) is an upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory designed to extend its energy range of detection and to directly measure the muon content of the cosmic ray primary particle showers. The array will be formed by an infill of surface water-Cherenkov detectors associated with buried scintillation counters employed for muon counting. Each counter is composed of three scintillation modules, with a 10m(2) detection area per module. In this paper, a new generation of detectors, replacing the current multi-pixel photomultiplier tube (PMT) with silicon photo sensors (aka. SiPMs), is proposed. The selection of the new device and its front-end electronics is explained. A method to calibrate the counting system that ensures the performance of the detector is detailed. This method has the advantage of being able to be carried out in a remote place such as the one where the detectors are deployed. High efficiency results, i.e. 98% efficiency for the highest tested overvoltage, combined with a low probability of accidental counting (similar to 2 %), show a promising performance for this new system., Unión Europea. FP7, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER, Centre de Calcul, France, Czech Science Foundation, Czech Republic, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Conseil Regional Ile-de-France, Ministerium fur Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Departement Physique Nucleaire et Corpusculaire, France, Departement Sciences de l'Univers, Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Finanzministerium Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren (HGF), Ministerium fur Wissenschaft und Forschung, Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany, Gran Sasso Center for Astroparticle Physics, Italy, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Italy, CETEMPS Center of Excellence, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (MAE), Italy, Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, Netherlands, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), Netherlands, National Centre for Research and Development, Poland, National Science Centre, Poland, Portuguese national funds, Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade, Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (COMPETE), Portugal, Romanian Authority for Scientific Research ANCS, CNDI-UEFISCDI partnership projects, Slovenian Research Agency, Slovenia, Xunta de Galicia, Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom, Department of Energy, UNESCO, Depto. de Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub