Solidstate Photomultipliers
Incorporated 2004 in the Swiss city of Geneva, Photonique SA consists of one co-inventor and some of the leading researchers and technologists in the field of Solidstate Photomultipliers (SSPM) development. 
Building on their human capital, Photonique was in a position to offer commercial quality SSPMs within a couple months of its inception. From the outset, Photonique has been a pure-play SSPM developer - SSPMs are their business and all their resources and efforts are focused on this activity.
Over the years they have substantially improved their core technologies while adopting sensor performance to the requirements brought forward by their customers. Thanks to this effort, they can now offer the widest range of SSPM solutions available on the market. They have also invested significantly into sensor packaging, characterization methodologies, quality control and flexible, on-demand production. Their customers benefit from this through superior, predictable performance and ease of use.Photonique SA’s Vision:
The key advantages of SSPMs over Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) are well documented and now recognized by many large-volume PMT buyers. SSPMs still suffer teething problems such as high dark count rates, limited sensor size and production issues, but the current rate of development is quite extraordinary and will shortly position this technology as a bona fide substitute for most small area PMTs. This is vividly reflected in the rapidly growing number of companies and research groups attempting to design and produce such devices.
PMTs, due to their inherent complexity and operating conditions, have reached a retail price level which can not drop much further, even at large volumes. SSPMs, which can be manufactured using CMOS fabrication techniques, offer the potential to undercut PMT per channel costs by orders of magnitude. This should allow for significant cost reductions in PET scanners, radiation detectors, quality control and analytical instruments to name just a few - all to the benefit of their respective users.
Photonique also believes that the availability of low-cost, compact and easy-to-integrate photon detectors will spur the development of many novel solutions which, to date, have either not yet been considered or are simply not feasible due to the limitations imposed by PMTs. A lot of interesting research in the life sciences indicates that photons emitted from biological systems carry a host of information. If they can be reliably and cheaply detected, much good should ensue.
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