Packaged APD Products - Deschutes BSI™ VFC 1000 Series Reduced Noise APD in Hermetic Packages
Voxtel’s reduced excess noise APDs (R-APDs) in hermetic TO-46 or TO-8 packages allow users to easily integrate Voxtel's 950–1700nm APDs into high-performance electro-optical systems. The TO-8 packages allows for a 3-stage thermo-electric (TE) cooler which can provide 100°C temperature differential from ambient (packages rated down to -40°C.) Voxtel’s VFI-1000 R-APDs are designed to deliver the best possible sensitivity for high-bandwidth near infrared (NIR) and short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) optical applications. With low avalanche noise and high quantum efficiency over the 950–1700nm spectral band, including the eye-safe wavelengths above 1400nm, the VFC-1000 In-GaAs R-APDs provide enhanced responsivity relative to PIN photodiodes, with lower noise than conventional NIR APD designs.
Voxtel’s thin InAlAs multiplication region InGaAs APD technology suppresses the excess multiplication noise associated with the avalanche process, improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the detector. Contemporary APDs achieve high responsivity through internal current gain, but the usefulness of the gain of these APDs is undermined by the accompanying noise. Voxtel’s R-APDs can be operated at relatively high gain with a smaller noise penalty, providing a significant advantage. Coupling the R-APD to a low-noise amplifier produces a receiver with superior noise equivalent power (sensitivity).
Deschutes BSITM VFC 1000 Packaged APD Products Features
- Hermetically packaged reduced-noise NIR InGaAs avalanche photodiode (R-APD)
- 75μm and 200μm diameters
- Low k eff ~0.20, resulting in low excess noise
- 950-1700nm spectral response
- Superior sensitivity not achieved with contemporary APDs
- TO-46/TO-8 packaging options include a broadband, double sided AR-coated flat window and 3-stage TE cooler
Applications
- Free-space optical communications
- Laser range finding
- Optical time domain reflectometry
- Optical coherence tomography
- Fluorescence measurements, spectroscopy, chromatography and electrophoresis
- Replacement for photomultiplier tubes
Voxtel is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of sophisticated detectors for a wide range of government, industrial and scientific applications. These detectors include industry’s highest quantum efficiency InGaAs photodetectors, industry’s highest gain and lowest excess noise InGaAs avalanche photodiodes (APDs), high pixel density and large area APD arrays, and Silicon photomultiplier arrays (SiPMs) and silicon single photon sensitive avalanche photodiodes (SPADs). These products are available in a variety of package formats, including robust hermetic and cryogenic housings, TE-cooled TO-8 packages, uncooled TO packages, and bare die.