Boston Chapter of the IEEE Photonics Society

Abstract:  The LAPPD Collaboration was formed in 2008/9 to develop economical large-area thin planar photodetectors for use in particle physics. The development rested on three technologies: 1) glass capillary MCP substrates functionalized with ALD to form resistive and SEY layers; 2) RF microstrip anodes for readout of large areas with good time (10’s of psec) and space (sub-mm in 2D) resolution; and 3) multi-GHz waveform sampling CMOS ASICS.  I will describe the implementations of these in the initial generic LAPPDTM design. The ability to time-slice 2D images at rates that resolve photon propagation path lengths  opens up a 3-dimensional phase space using the drift time and arrival position of photons, and consequently new applications in science, medical imaging, and  nuclear non-proliferation monitoring. [The Collaboration formally ended in 2012, with the development moving into commercialization accompanied by parallel continued separate R&D efforts.

Biography:  Frisch leads a multi-institutional effort to develop high-speed, large-area, low-cost photodetectors. Such detectors could be used in applications ranging from medical imaging to cargo scanning. The benefits of applying such detectors to positron-emission tomography (PET) include higher imaging quality than existing PET systems, while reducing patient radiation exposure. Frisch was a founding member of the team that discovered the top quark at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in 1995. His research interests have included the search for new states of matter, extra-spatial dimensions and dark matter particles. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a recipient of the University’s Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Provost’s Teaching Award.