"LAPPD Commercialization Fully Integrated Sealed Detector Devices

The high energy physics (HEP) community, scientific and medical communities and the public at large, will benefit from the availability of high sensitivity photo- sensors with improved spatial and temporal resolution that scaled to large areas, and manufactured in a robust, durable compact package at low cost. The Phase I program will address this need, demonstrating feasibility of commercial production of fully integrated hermetically sealed Large Area, 8X8 Fast Photodetectors for Particle Detection (LAPPD) for HEP Applications. Since 2009, Incom Inc. has supplied 8 & quot;X8 & quot; microcapillary arrays to the Argonne LAPPD program. Incom Inc. will leverage prior Argonne LAPPD R & amp;D and will advance, optimize and adapt that technology to enable commercial production of fully integrated detector tiles. Earlier work showed that the concept is sound, and that optimized detectors will have the required gain, low-noise, time and space resolution, and life-time required for a commercial device. Phase I R & amp;D issues to be addressed include a) MCP gain uniformity, b) bi-alkali photocathode performance in a sealed fully integrated glass package, and c) reliable hermetic all glass package sealing. Phase I will demonstrate feasibility of fully-integrated hermetically-sealed LAPPD tile modules, ready for test, incorporating Incom/ANL ALD-functionalized MCPs, conductively coated spacers, a metalized strip line anode, and borosilicate glass packaging. The Phase II program will address commercialization of these developments and production scale-up. The outcome will be fully-integrated detector devices suitable for application testing, plus a proven path to further commercial availability. Phase II goals are: 1) a scalable, high-yield production process to produce 8X8 LAPPD-style photodetector modules, and 2) fabrication of complete systems for at least four early-adopter groups to use in field tests. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The availability of large-area economically produced photodetectors with time resolutions below 10 psec and space resolutions of & lt;50 microns will enable new techniques in HEP to reconstruct fundamental interactions based on the time-of- flight of particles traveling at light speeds including multiple vertex separation and particle ID at high-luminosity colliders, possible light collection in heavy-noble-liquid ionization detectors, high-resolution electromagnetic calorimeters, large non-cryogenic tracking neutrino detectors, and combinatorial photon background rejection in rare kaon-decay experiments. Homeland security (non-proliferation) applications include the ability to screen cargo and vehicles for nuclear materials. Scientific applications include astronomy, electron microscopy, time-of-flight mass spectrometry, molecular and atomic collision studies, and fluorescence imaging applications in biotechnology. Medical imaging application includes detectors for positron emission tomography (PET scanning).