Viewing posts for the category Products

A High-Performance Time Domain Reflectometer

Posted : in News, Products 10 months ago

In a previous article, we described an ultralow-cost time-domain reflectometer (TDR) that  is used as a radar dipstick for fuel gauges in heavy equipment.  Its 150-ps edges were better than good enough, and its rock-bottom BOM cost ($1.30 @ 100 pcs) made it possible for the whole gauge to retail for under $40.  That performance is far from the limit for low-cost samplers, as we'll see.

Product Announcement: QL03 Photoreceiver

Posted : in News, Products 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Silicon Photomultiplier Module Design

Posted : in News, Products, Sensitive Design, Ultrasensitive Instrument Design 4 years, 11 months ago

Internal Developments

In the last year or two we've been doing a lot of work aimed at replacing photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) in instruments, using avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs).  These devices are arrays of single-photon detectors, so they're also known as multi-pixel photon counters (MPPCs).  Our main application areas include biomedical instruments such as flow cytometers and microplate readers, which have to measure low light levels very precisely but don't need the ultralow dark current of PMTs. (Follow-on articles will talk about our SiPM work in airborne lidar and SEM cathodoluminescence, as well as on improving the performance of actual PMTs.)

PMTs have been around since the 1930s, and remain the undisputed champs for the very lowest light levels.  We love PMTs, but we have to admit that they're delicate and not that easy to use—they tend to be bulky, they need high voltage, and they need regular replacement.  Most of all, PMTs are very expensive.