Zecotek lands U.S. patent for solid-state photo detector

Singapore-based Zecotek Photonics has announced that a new micro-channel avalanche photodiode solid-state photo detector (MAPD) to be used in advanced PET technology has received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent Office.

Zecotek’s new detector reportedly offers “significant” upgrades in performance at a lower cost compared to other photomultiplier tubes and solid-state, silicon based photo-detectors and will be used in upcoming high-energy experiments at CERN, otherwise known as the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and is expected to be configured into a new phase of high-resolution PET scanning technologies.

“The US patent allowance for our MAPD solid-state photo-detector is important to our strategic alliance with Hamamatsu Photonics and our relationship with the prestigious science institution CERN,” said Chairman, President, and CEO of Zecotek Photonics, A.F. Zerrouk, MD, in a press release. “The MAPD solid-state photo detector is a key alternative component for the development of a new generation PET scanner, and having protection of the underlying MAPD technology is very important to our Company and our shareholders."

Zecotek is rounding out a patent portfolio for imaging technology in order to solidify all of the intellectual property needed to produce a PET scanner. Patents for the MAPD are now held in the U.S., China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Russia.