Ultra-High Sensitivity Low Signal Amplifiers - Products of Genvac AeroSpace Inc.

<<BACK TO PRODUCTS
<<INFRARED COATINGS
<<CLEAR CONDUCTIVE COATINGS

• Battlefield-Ready Infrared Windows
..for Night Vision/Heat Detection
< Ultra-High Sensitivity Low Signal Amplifiers

Description
The term "night-vision" is generally recognized to indicate
a device capable of producing "daylight-like" imaging in
dark environments. All night-vision devices utilize some
form of a photon amplifier. One such device is known
as a photo multiplier tube (PMT). The PMT takes a very
low-level light signal, converts it into an electronic pulse
and amplifies the pulse to be detected by some form of
electronic detector. The electron amplifier stage of the
PMT relies on surfaces, called dynodes, to produce
electronic amplification by "multiplying" the number of
electrons produced by the initial pulse. This stage of the
PMT, known as an electron multiplier, works by secondary
electron production from the dynodes which occurs naturally
due to the dynode material. Materials used in electron
multipliers to create secondary electrons will produce up to
as many as 45 electrons for every impinging electron incident
on the dynode surface. With such materials used as dynodes
a PMT will have a gain of greater than 1 million, i.e., it will produce greater than 1 million electrons for every photon of light.

High electron amplification gains are enabling product performance improvements in several areas. These areas include medical devices, military sensing systems, and scientific analysis equipment.

Genvac Aerospace Technology -
Diamond-Based PMTs/Dynodes

General Vacuum (now Genvac Aerospace) was founded based on a secondary electron emission discovery by the company founder, Dr. Gerald T. Mearini, Ph.D., while working as a researcher at NASA Lewis Research Center in 1992. It was discovered that laboratory grown diamond films can produce up to 45 electrons from a single incident electron, and the property was well characterized. Since that time Genvac has improved secondary electron emission from laboratory grown diamond to produce greater than 60 electrons from a single impinging electron. This diamond has recently been applied to dynodes produced by the nation's largest PMT manufacturer for medical applications which has resulted in higher output than ever previously observed from a PMT. The PMT manufacturer has been producing diamond-based PMTs since late 2000.

Genvac seeks opportunities to expand the use of diamond films to enable new PMT designs, exploit diamond's superior thermal properties and leverage also the electrical breakdown resistance of these versatile nanostructures.

SEM image of
high-emission
CVD diamond