Zecotek avalanche photodiodes to be used in European hadron calorimeter

December 19, 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada--Zecotek Photonics, formerly Zecotek Medical Systems, has received an order for a supply of its proprietary micro-pixel avalanche photodiodes (MAPD) solid-state photo detectors from the Institute of High Energy Physics Research (INR). The MAPD photo detectors will form a critical component in a new, high-performance hadron calorimeter, a device used in key experiments at the European Centre for High Energy particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland.

The hadron calorimeter will be used for the detection of particles in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the energy range from 10 to 160 GeV per nucleon. Each calorimeter will contain of a large number of modules consisting of multiple layers of plastic scintillator material. Light produced by the particles in the scintillator is collected by a wavelength shifting fiber and collected at a MAPD. The MAPD will provide both high pixel density in excess of 10,000 pixels per square mm and required gain.

The INR successfully constructed and tested the first supermodule with MAPDs as a critical component in its CERN labs in Switzerland. Results of the successful application were announced at a recent CERN workshop by the leading researcher, Dr. Fedor Guber.

INR's first calorimeter will require over one thousand MAPDs which will be supplied through Zecotek Imaging Systems Pte. Ltd., Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zecotek Photonics Inc. The MAPDs are manufactured under contract by the Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems.