Advanced Photonix merged with Luna Innovations in Febuary 2015, forming a joint company under Luna Innovation's name, operating as a subsiduary . Advanced Photonix develops highly sensitive devices detect light in measurement, control, and monitoring applications used in the industrial, medical, military, scientific, and commercial markets. The company's light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, and optoelectronic assemblies sense light of varying intensity and convert it into electronic signals; the technology is used in devices that operate under a high amount of environmental stress, such as those that uncover underwater mines, ensure that missiles hit the right target, and detect air pollution. Commercial and defense electronics specialist Raytheon accounts for 26% of the company's sales. The firm has developed larg e - a rea silicon avalanche photodiodes that are among the first solid-state devices to provide a high-gain, low-noise, larg e -a rea replacement for photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) used in a selected range of light detection applications. Avalanche photodiodes bring the same qualities of ruggedness, small size, and low cost to light detection and imaging that other semiconductors have brought to the rest of the world of electronic s . Early research on APIâs avalanche photodiodes was conducted at Xsirius Scientific, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA). In 1988, Xsirius formed API to commercialize this technology.
