Avalanche Photodiodes

Like photomultipliers, avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are used to detect extremely weak light intensities. Silicon (Si) APDs are used in the wavelength range from UV to NIR (250 nm to 1100 nm), and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) is used as semiconductor material in APDs for the NIR wavelength range from 1100 nm to 1700 nm. 

All APDs developed by LASER COMPONENTS are manufactured at the production facility in Arizona. To meet the needs of each customer, components can be offered with modifications and customizations. Even before a purchase order is placed, product experts can offer guidance in the decision-making process. 

Certified Manufacturing 

All Si & InGaAs APD wafers are produced in a Class 100 clean room. Packaging is done within a Class 10,000 clean room. For customers in the automotive industry, many components have been developed to meet the AEC-Q102 qualification. Additionally, products are developed with MIL-STD for high-reliability defense and aerospace applications.    

Silicon APDs 

LASER COMPONENTS has  a large portfolio of Si APD products, that  are customized to support high Quantum Efficiencies (QE) at wavelengths of 250 nm, 405 nm, 670 nm, 700 nm, 905 nm, 1050 nm, and 1064 nm (the SAT series is typical for YAG applications). These ultra-sensitive detectors can capture even the smallest amounts of light, ideal for single photon counting (SAP series and Count Modules). Si APDs are typically offered with active area diameters ranging from 230 µm to 3000 µm. 

InGaAs APDs 

For the infrared (IR) range, LASER COMPONENTS offers two variants of InGaAs APDs with the active area diameters ranging from 80 um to 500 um. These APDs are ideal for applications that require industrial durability, low capacitance, low dark current, high dynamic operational range and detectivity across a spectral range of 800 nm to 1700 nm. They have a high quantum efficiency at 1310 nm, 1480 nm, 1550 nm. and 1625 nm that allow these avalanche photodiodes to operate with low noise even at higher gains and high bandwidth without neglecting lower wavelengths. These detectors demonstrate high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) even when operating at gain 30.  

APD Receivers 

Featuring a large frequency bandwidth and support for many wavelengths, APD Receivers operate in 400 nm to 1100 nm and 1000 nm to 1650 nm for Silicon and InGaAs APDs respectively. LASER COMPONENTS offers the H1-Series for low noise with a built-in temperature sensor supporting bandwidths up to 30 MHz. The H2-H5-Series work for even faster applications, with bandwidth up to 700 MHz. 

APD Selection Guide 

Depending on the material of a detector the range and reliability can drastically differ for various applications. Read the LASER COMPONENTS APD Selection Guide to understand where Si and InGaAs APDs each fit. 

Get The Perfect Couple with Matching PLDs  

LASER COMPONENTS can be your one stop for all your emitter and detector products as a manufacturer of both pulsed laser diodes (PLDs) and photodiodes. PLDs are offered with custom band-pass filters to match the needs of different industries.  

Fields of Applications 

• Laser rangefinding 
• LiDAR 
• Spectroscopy & Fluorescence 
• Defense & Military 
• Automotive industry 
• Astronomical  
• Biomedical technology 
• Optical communications