AP Technologies will again be taking part in the Photonics Tutorials feature which runs alongside the Photonex exhibition on Wednesday 15th October.
Martin Sharratt will provide an update on SensL Technologies latest ultra-low noise silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) technology. Titled “Ultra-low noise silicon photomultipliers – applications and recent advances” the presentation has the sub-title “So you think you know silicon photomultipliers?” – a reference to the fact that the performance of SensL’s SiPMs has evolved at a phenomenal rate over the past few years.
The latest generation of SiPM from SensL, known as the “C-series”, has just 0.25% of the Dark Count Rate of their 2010-2011 technology at just ~30kHz/mm². At the same time the Photon Detection Efficiency has increased almost three-fold to an industry-leading 47% peak.
As a result of these improvements the C-series SiPMs can offer users ~1000 fold increase in Signal-to-Noise Ratio compared to product they might have tested in 2010-2011 – hence the “so you think you know—”.
SensL’s focus on high volume OEM applications has also driven improvements in their packaging – the presentation will discuss the current state-of-the-art high volume and low cost surface mount packaging as well as giving a brief insight into exciting developments in this area.
The performance of SensL’s Tier 1 200mm CMOS wafer fabrication is also discussed – highlighting their excellent breakdown voltage tolerance of just ±250mV before moving onto recent industry-standard reliability testing – a world-first in SiPMs.
Time permitting the presentation will conclude with a brief look at how the performance of the C-series SiPMs opens up new applications.
AP Technologies are also using Photonex 2014 to launch their new product line from LC-Tec Displays.
LC-Tec’s Liquid Crystal Fast Optical Shutter (FOS) products replace conventional beam choppers with compact, planar, low voltage and vibration-free devices with no moving parts. The FOS consists of a liquid crystal polarisation modulator positioned between crossed linear polarisers. Applying a drive voltage reorients the birefringent LC molecules resulting in a change in transmittance of the light passing through the full shutter structure meaning it is also possible to achieve analogue grey-scale operation between fully-open and fully-closed states – effectively making the FOS a variable Neutral Density filter!
The patented PolarSpeed® product offers unprecedented 30µs symmetrical switching between two states of polarisation. The major application is 3D-projection where LC-Tec’s PolarSpeed® technology can be found in the DepthQ® polarisation modulator used in 3D-cinemas worldwide. Other applications includes cameras, microscopes and welding masks where LC-Tec’s low wavefront aberration performance maintains excellent image quality.
LC-Tec can also supply Liquid Crystal Fast Polarisation Modulator (FPM) devices enabling switching between two output polarization states, for example between linear-linear or left- and right-handed circular polarization.
LC-Tec produce their FOS and FPM products using 14” by 16” starting sheets so can produce extremely large devices when required.
Please visit APT on Stand A11 to see an LC-TEC FOS in action and discuss your laser diode, LED and detection requirements.
