SiOnyx Competition Coming?

Hamamatsu Photonics has developed the world’s first commercially available IR-enhanced silicon photodiodes with greater sensitivity in the near-infrared region from 950 nm to 1100 nm than conventional silicon photodiodes. The enhanced infrared sensitivity is achieved through the use of Hamamatsu’s proprietary laser processing technology to produce sensitivity-boosting microstructures on the silicon surface.

To me this sounds a lot similar to SiOnyx claims. While SiOnyx mostly talks about photoresistor structure with huge photoresistive gain, Hamamatsu sensor is a photodiode. Still, the trick to apply laser processing to create surface microstructures seems to be quite similar.

Hamamatsu targets to mass produce various types of inexpensive and easy-to-use silicon detectors with enhanced infrared sensitivity. Application areas are expected to include security, optical communications, thermal measurement, and fluorescence photometry.