DEPHAN – Detect Every Photon

We are a start-up company consisting of physicists, technologists and entrepreneurs. We work with silicon foundries to manufacture our DEPHAN detectors in accordance with our proprietary IP, processes and specifications. We are interested in partnerships, including joint patent solutions, with manufacturers of microelectronics and optoelectronics devices, as well as developers of optical information systems who are looking for a competitive advantage in LIDAR, PET and other applications. PRODUCT Our product is new generation of solid-state state photomultiplier for detecting and analyzing optical signals in the visible range with a wide dynamic range along with high sensitivity, short recovery time, and low noise. DEPHAN solid-state optical detectors provide 10x increase in dynamic range and 5x increase in sensitivity, while decreasing cross-talk by 90%, enabling superior performance of LIDAR, PET and other optical analysis systems. Combination of such parameters should significantly increase market share of the solid-state photomultipliers in medical applications, biotechnology, industrial and radiation measurements, high-energy physics, and pollution monitoring, thus facilitating replacement of vacuum photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), which have no alternatives nowadays. SOLVED PROBLEM Any existing solid-state device is a trade-off between the two key parameters: dynamic range and photosensitive area. Dynamic range is governed by the cells density while photosensitive area determines photo-detection efficiency (PDE). To escape from this trade-off we developed a new design DEPHAN solid-state photomultiplier with avalanche miniaturized amplifying channels. Pilot prototypes of the solid-state photomultipliers DEPHAN with 1×1 mm² surface area have amplification channels (cells) density 4.4×10⁴ mm⁻² with light-sensitive area (fill-factor) 0.83. For comparison, the main competitor in dynamic range of the developed device has surface area 1×1 mm² with 10⁴ pixels and fill-factor 0.33. In devices available on the market, increase of cells density is limited by crosstalk that becomes the main source of noise. Preliminary measurements of crosstalk in DEPHAN devises have shown very low crosstalk – less than 3%. Thus, it makes possible further increase of cell density and, consequently, and dynamic range in future. Currently (as of 2017) manufacture of DEPHAN prototype devices is under way with the following parameters: Cells density — up to 10⁵ mm⁻²; Fill-factor — up to 0.80; Crosstalk < 3%; Pulse pair resolution ≲ 1 ns.