PHOTON IS OUR BUSINESS

Why Hamamatsu ?

Light-powered innovation

Our mission is to benefit society through the development of technologies that capture, measure, and generate various types of light.

That's why we re-invest at least 9% of our yearly revenue into research and development - to maintain cutting-edge quality across 90 types of image sensors, light sources, components, and systems with capabilities that span the spectrum from x-ray to infrared.

Sensors and emitters for visible and invisible light

We are one of the only companies in the world that develops a wide range of both light sensors, such as photomultiplier tubes and photodiodes, and light sources such as lasers, LEDs, and measurement lamps.

The components we manufacture measure and generate not only visible light, but also ultra-low, ultraviolet, infrared, and x-ray light.

Components, modules, and systems

Our light sensor and light source components are also available as modules and units with dedicated circuits. These devices can be incorporated into systems we develop, such as optical measurement systems, imaging systems, and image analysis systems.

These products are used in a wide range of applications, ranging from everyday technology like smartphones to measurement instruments that support cutting-edge academic research.

Producing a wide range of customized products at your request

Customers face more than one issue for the products they desire, such as the required performance, operating environment, and size and shape. Our customization process starts with consultations with highly specialized engineers to identify the necessary specifications, from material selection to the initial design phase. We use our technologies and expertise to deliver a solution that meets your specific requirements.

Enabling a full scale of product production

We own high-precision manufacturing technologies that require hand craftsmanship, as well as production lines that can manufacture small and large volumes. Our manufacturing technology and production capacity enables us to deliver what customers need, regardless of lot size.
Standardizing quality

Our quality management system adheres to ISO9001. We also conduct industry-specific tests to ensure our products meet the requests and requirements of our customers.

Generating knowledge through research

We established the Central Research Laboratory, Tsukuba Research Center, and Industries Development Center to explore light through basic and applied research.

Our collaboration with industries, government, and universities allow us to go beyond corporate boundaries and build cooperative relationships.

Optical information processing and measurement

We are progressing step by step toward a new type of information processing through research into highly sophisticated light control and measurement on the spatial axis, time axis, and wavelength axis of light.
Health care and medicine

In order to bring "true health" to all of us, we have continually applied a wide range of photonics technologies including PET applied research and biosensing into this field.
Biophotonics

We have been continuously researching how biological phenomena interacts with light. Through understanding these mechanisms, we hope to create useful tools that will improve our lives.

Photonic materials

We call the word nanophotonics to refer to this mutual interaction between light and matter and between light and electrons in the nano-region. We are constantly researching new materials that utilize this interaction between light and matter.
Energy

To foster and develop new industries, we now aim to create them by utilizing light based primarily on research into laser fusion capable of extracting energy from hydrogen isotopes available in seawater.

The origin of Hamamatsu Photonics

"Try before you say you can’t."
Our success pioneering initiatives without precedent is the result of our determination to take on entirely new challenges in order to meet customer needs.

Building the impossible: How we made the world's largest photomultiplier tube

In 1979, Hamamatsu Photonics began development on a 25-inch diameter photomultiplier tube capable of observing proton decay at the request of professor Masatoshi Koshiba of the Faculty of Science at the University of Tokyo. At that time in the industry's history, development had only recently begun on 8-inch diameter tubes, so developing a PMT with a 25-inch diameter was beyond anyone's imagination. However, our former President Teruo Hiruma was undeterred: He decided we would "just try it anyway."

Development was an uphill battle with more than its fair share of trial and error, but our first prototype achieved an extraordinary accomplishment: It already cleared specification requirements.

Since then, we have continued to develop exciting innovations and establish leading expertise in the optical technologies industry. Our succcess stems from the spirit of Hamamatsu Photonics, demonstrated by the moment our engineers and manufacturers rose to President Teruo Hiruma's challenge to "just try" the impossible.

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Kamiokande: Observing neutrinos for the first time

20-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs)

In 1987, researchers at the Kamiokande project in Hida, Japan were the first in human history to observe neutrinos from a supernova explosion for the first time in history, capturing a one-in-a-million phenomenon occurring in the universe 160,000 light-years away from Earth. Behind it all was our 20-inch PMT.
Today, we are proud to continue evolving PMT technology and have applied our innovations to the currently running Super-Kamiokande, as well as to the design of the future Hyper-Kamiokande.
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CERN: Confirming the existence of the Higgs boson

Silicon strip detectors (SSDs) and PMTs

The Higgs boson eluded researchers until 2012, when its existence was finally confirmed by experiments conducted with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Our SSD technology contributed to this groundbreaking discovery by detecting the position where the particle had been pierced with a resolution of several tens of μm. Learn more
Subaru Telescope: Solving the mysteries of the universe

CCD area image sensors

The Subaru Telescope, located atop of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, is a state-of-the-art optical infrared telescope designed to observe objects and phenomena billions of light years away. Our most sensitive CCD area image sensors are built into the ultra-wide-field prime focus camera of this next-generation telescope. With it, researchers can glean new insights about our expanding universe through observation of the dark objects that were impossible to observe with conventional cameras in a wide range and high resolution.
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Asteroid explorers Hayabusa and Hayabusa2

X-ray image sensor, InGaAs image sensor／InAs image sensor

The asteroid explorer Hayabusa returned to Earth seven years after its launch, completing its long journey to and from the asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa is equipped with an InGaAs image sensor and a CCD image sensor developed and manufactured by Hamamatsu Photonics, and used light to observe the surface of Itokawa. The infrared spectrometer installed in the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 was also equipped with a Hamamatsu Photonics InAs image sensor, in order to measure the surface of an asteroid.
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Letter from Hayabusa2
Sample Analysis of Asteroid Ryugu

Digital CMOS camera

Samples from the asteroid Ryugu collected by the asteroid probe Hayabusa2 were packed in a special capsule and released to the ground from faraway space. In December 2020, the capsule containing the samples returned to the ground and was delivered to researchers as many people watched. Hamamatsu Photonics' digital CMOS camera was used to analyze Ryugu's samples and is helping to unravel many mysteries.
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