Uncooled Solid-State Spectrometer Detector with Ultimate Sensitivity

LightSpin Technologies, Inc. proposes to develop an innovative time resolved spectrometer focal plane array (FPA) detector technology for LIBS applications. The FPA will use a 1 x 1024 pixelated array of solid-state microchannel plate (SSMCP) photodetectors, which are a true solid-state replacement for vacuum phototube detectors, such as those used for intensified CCDs. These SSMCP pixels achieve internal gains of 1E6, enabling single photon detection without the need for expensive pre-amplifiers. In addition to achieving single photon sensitivity, the SSMCP pixels are capable of achieving high quantum efficiency (40%), high dynamic range (8 – 16 bits), and negligible dark count rates (< 1 count/pixel/frame). The spectrometer FPA will incorporate sampling ROIC chips that provides 512 samples/channel with sampling rates of 50 MSa/s to 1 GSa/s. For LIBS applications, the SSMCP will be matched to the spectrometer focal plane, and will have high sensitivity across the entire 200 – 900 nm wavelength range of interest. During the Phase I project LightSpin demonstrated the excellent single photon performance of its detectors.