10 Feb 2006 LASER COMPONENTS DG Inc. has manufactured silicon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) in Phoenix, Arizona since 2004. The entire process lies in our own hands. The detectors are based on one a semiconductor structure developed by us. Our standard program includes epitaxy and reach-through Si-APDs with an active area diameter of 230 µm and 500 µm. The APDs from our own production line are manufactured on 4 wafers and are particularly well suited for recognizing small amounts of light right down to single photons. These APDs are delivered in TO46 housings (lens caps and integrated filters are optional), on ceramic submounts, or in TO-37 cans with built-in thermoelectric coolers. They are mainly used in laser radar systems and biomedical applications.
The large-area InGaAs APDs with a diameter of 200 µm are integrated into measurement systems and rangefinders. By using an internal gain of up to 10, small signals in the IR range can be detected and the measuring range of eye-safe distance measurement systems increased significantly.
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