Advances in Large Area Picosecond Photo-Detectors – LAPPD™

The Large Area Picosecond Photo-Detector (LAPPD), commercialized by Incom Inc., is the world's largest planar-geometry microchannel plate (MCP) based photodetector.

It incorporates a chevron pair of 10 μm or 20μm MCPs, produced by applying resistive and emissive Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) layers to glass capillary array (GCA) substrates, encased in a hermetic glass or ceramic package. The borosilicate glass or UV grade fused silica entry window is coated with a high sensitivity bi-alkali photocathode. The internal stack has been redesigned to increase the detection area from 350 cm² to 370 cm².

The GEN I LAPPD utilizes direct strip anode readout while the GEN II LAPPD features a customizable capacitively-coupled pixelated readout with resistive anode, significantly reducing cross-talk. LAPPDs have demonstrated electron gains of 10⁷, low dark noise rates (< kHz/cm²), single photoelectron (PE) timing resolution of 52 ps RMS (electronics-limited) and mm-scale spatial resolution, high (>25%) QE uniform bi-alkali photocathodes, and good magnetic field tolerance.

LAPPDs are good candidates for neutrino, HEP, and neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments, and medical and nuclear non-proliferation applications. We report on recent developments and performance of the LAPPDs.