# FANTANA Cooled Single-Photon Receiver
*sensor . products*

FANTANA cooled single-photon receiver using APD technology for optical satellite-to-ground laser communication.

## Specifications
- **manufacturer**: fantana
- **deployment context**: ground
- **entity type**: sensor
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-11
- **verified by**: operator
- **claim status**: unclaimed
- **provider**: fantana
- **attributes**: {"kind":"sensor","product_status":null,"manufacturer":"fantana","description":"FANTANA cooled single-photon receiver using APD technology for optical satellite-to-ground laser communication.","sensor":null,"bus":null,"ground_segment":null,"launcher":null,"analysis_service":null,"deployment_context":"ground"}

## Editorial
The FANTANA Cooled Single-Photon Receiver is an avalanche photodiode (APD) detector developed by Fantana GmbH (Vienna, Austria) for use in free-space optical laser communication links.[^fantana-product-cspr] It operates the APD in Geiger mode with active quench circuitry, and uses thermoelectric cooling to below -20 degrees C to reduce dark-count noise, enabling detection of the very low photon fluxes present on satellite-to-ground optical paths.[^fantana-product-cspr] The receiver is paired with Fantana's laser ranger terminal for beam stabilisation in full FSO communication systems.[^fantana-mission] Operating wavelength is not published in available sources, and no on-orbit deployment heritage or named customer missions have been confirmed at time of research.

## Sources
- [fantana-product-cspr] | Cooled single-photon receiver for use in laser communication, Fantana GmbH | https://fantana.at/en/cooled-single-photon-receiver-for-use-in-laser-communication/ | tier=operator-marketing | accessed=2026-06-11
- [fantana-mission] | Mission and History, Fantana GmbH | https://fantana.at/en/mission-and-history/ | tier=operator-marketing | accessed=2026-06-11
- [nanosats-fantana] | Fantana, Nanosats Database | https://www.nanosats.eu/org/fantana | tier=community | accessed=2026-06-11

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/products/sensor/fantana-cooled-single-photon-receiver
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)