We are delighted to announce that Phlux Technology, a spin-out from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering here at the University of Sheffield, has won the prestigious SPIE Prism Award at this year’s SPIE Photonics West.
Phlux Technology won the SPIE Prism Award for its Aura family of 1550nm Noiseless InGaAs APD sensors, with the award itself being presented at a gala dinner in San Francisco.
The ground-breaking sensors are 12X more sensitive than traditional InGaAs APDs, a performance boost that alluded the IR sensors industry for over 20 years. The improvement was achieved by adding an antimony allow into the compound semiconductor manufacturing process, which dramatically reduced the noise generated in the avalanche amplification process and also produced other enhancements including dynamic range improvements, fast recovery in the presence of large signals, and better temperature stability.
Professor Chee Hing Tan, co-founder of Phlux Technology, said: “This award recognises the world-leading innovation at Phlux. It places Phlux as the technology leader and has attracted immense interest from many large companies to work with Phlux. I am convinced that this technology will continue to set new performance standards, such that it will lead to huge success for Phlux, and consequently also reflect the strength of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in translation excellence and innovative research into strong societal and economic impacts.
I hope that the School, University, and Phlux will continue to forge a stronger partnership that will help to transform Sheffield into an exciting, innovative technology hub in the UK.”
Phlux Technology’s CEO, Ben White, commented: “This is a crowning moment for our team after five years of relentless effort in technical innovation and product commercialization.