12 February 2008
(Cork, Ireland, and Mountain View, CA; 12 February 2008) – SensL, a provider of innovative low light detectors and modules, today announced the release of their latest product, the SPMPlus Large Area Silicon
Photomultiplier. The SPMPlus is a large-area version of SensL’s SPM detectors, incorporating an array of
individual Silicon Photomultipliers (SPM) pixels tiled together using a novel packaging concept. The output of the tiles are summed together resulting in a sensor with a large active area — the first silicon alternative for Large Area PMT. The detector is packaged in a format suitable for scintillator coupling or free space / fluorescence applications and is available with appropriate interface / preamplifier electronics.
The SPMPlus is the ideal detector for both OEMs and researchers, whether they work with an application that uses a portable/miniature device, a large area radiation detector, or a high tier laboratory analysis instrument. Perfect for early adopters who wish to study the technology and evaluate the potential use of large area SPMs for low light detection applications, the SPMPlus will be of particular interest to research groups active in the development of detector systems for applications such as SPECT, Gamma Camera, and Radiation Detection for both medical and security purposes as well as developers of fluorescence applications requiring large detector sizes.
The module incorporates a transparent thick glass substrate with a connector which allows all of the individual pixel signals to be summed as a single output. The first version has a total active area of 1.3cm x 1.3cm but the design is flexible and customizable. SensL’s patented biasing circuitry ensures that these large area SPMs retain the fast on-set time (<10ns) and recovery time (<60ns) of their smaller cousins.
The SPMPlus is the first solid state alternative to the analogue Large Area Photomultiplier Tube. It combines the high gain (106) and gain stability advantages of the PMT technology with the well appreciated benefits of size, operating voltage, robustness, reliability, magnetic insensitivity and suitability for miniaturization of silicon detectors. In addition, the novel design is tolerant to excess / ambient light.