Using the Photon Detection feature, devices are able to sense what is not normally visible, enabling disruptive applications in automotive safety, medical imaging, robotics, and industrial automation. By detecting a single photon, it can detect tiny signals in real time and realize accurate measurement distance to early disease detection.
Photomultipliers (PMTs) were invented in the 1930s and are the gold standard for detecting photons, but their glass vacuum tubes are fragile and too large to integrate in critical applications such as automobiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, hand-held devices, or consumer devices. In contrast, solid-state avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are more practical, but less sensitive than PMTs.
When product designers need a chip level alternative that combines PMT sensitivity with APD utility, they can try a new generation of photonic detection technology-silicon photomultiplier tubes (SiPM). Broadcom's AFBR-S4 SiPM series offers state-of-the-art photonic detection capabilities, and designers can easily integrate them into LiDAR, medical scanners, industrial sensors, or other demanding applications.
Light up the light of innovation
Light can transfer important information such as distance, motion, chemistry, and radiation through each photon. Detecting these photons, especially when they are rare or instantaneous, is fundamental to enabling technologies such as LiDAR, advanced medical scanners, and ultra-precise industrial sensors in self-driving cars.
The challenge is that photons are so tiny and fleeting that special detectors are needed to capture photons and amplify them into usable signals. The PMT converts individual photons into electrons, which are then amplified by electrodes in a vacuum tube to produce measurable electrical pulses. Despite their high sensitivity and low noise, they are not easily installed in modern compact systems.
APD is a more practical solid state alternative that amplifies photons through an internal avalanche process in a silicon diode as a smaller, faster solution. However, under weak light conditions, it is difficult for these devices to reliably detect a single photon, so the signal generated by weak light is correspondingly weak.
SiPM detects single photons like PMT, but its chip is compact, low voltage, rugged and even the weakest light can be measured immediately. The device consists of an array of tiny micro cells, each operating in Geiger mode, so that one photon produces a complete and uniform electrical pulse.
The function of each micro-cell is essentially like a digital switch, which turns on when photons are captured. When triggered, the cell resets and is ready for the next photon so that a sensor, which works with thousands of cells, counts a single photon and processes a stronger optical signal.
COMPACT HIGH PERFORMANCE PHOTON DETECTOR
Broadcom's AFBR-S4 SiPM series integrates single-photon sensitivity, fast timing, and powerful performance in a compact, practical package to simplify complexity and ease the integration of advanced light detection technologies into marketable products.
Broadcom's AFBR-S4E001 Assessment Suite (Figure 1) helps product designers quickly bring SiPM based applications to market. This suite provides a ready to use platform for testing, prototyping and integration of AFBR-S4 sensors without the need to design circuitry specifically for them. This reduces the risk of development and allows repeated testing of hardware and software before committing to custom PCB layouts or production designs.