TN-93

[Doug Welch <welch@physics.mcmaster.ca>]

Hi Tom,

Nice technical note! You mentioned photdiodes. I am fairly
up-to-date on these. Probably the "best" photodiode out
there for amateur use is the Hamamatsu S1133-01 which costs
$6.31(USD) each in quantities of 1-99. It combines a decent
area with very high shunt resistance.

There are also photodiode/preamp combo's out there.
The Cadillac's are probably the Advanced Photonix units
with high gain:

SD 112-43-11-221  (75 MOhm)  --- $75.08 ea.
SD 112-45-11-221  (600 MOhm)  -- $68.80 ea.

Digikey sells two rather nice (and inexpensive) but much 
lower gain units from Burr-Brown (TI):

OPT101P-ND [8DIP]    (1 MOhm) ---  $5.51 ea.
OPT301M-ND [TO-99-8] (1 MOhm) --- $15.26 ea.

If there are other competitive units out there, I would
like to know about them!!

Cheers,
Doug