The Saphira detector is designed for high speed infrared applications and is the result of a three year research and development program alongside the European Southern Observatory on sensors for astronomical instruments. It delivers world leading photon sensitivity of <1 photon rms with Fowler sampling and high speed non-destructive readout (>10K frame/s).

Saphira is an HgCdTe avalanche photodiode (APD) array incorporating a full custom ROIC for applications in the 0.8 to 2.5μm range. A key aspect of the array is the ability to perform multiple non-destructive readouts which can allow Fowler sampling or “down the slope” sampling to significantly reduce the noise and increase the sensitivity.

The architecture allows multiple, independently resettable windows and a selectable number of parallel outputs up to 32.

Applications include wavefront sensors, fringe trackers, spectroscopy, and imaging in any photon starved scenario.