Document and Entity Information	3 Months Ended
Jul. 01, 2011	Aug. 10, 2011
Document Information [Line Items]
Document Type	10-Q
Amendment Flag	false
Document Period End Date	Jul. 01, 2011
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2011
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q1
Trading Symbol	API
Entity Registrant Name	ADVANCED PHOTONIX INC
Entity Central Index Key	0000869986
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--03-31
Entity Filer Category	Smaller Reporting Company
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		30,748,524

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The type of document being provided (such as 10-K, 10-Q, N-1A, etc). The document type is limited to the same value as the supporting SEC submission type, minus any "/A" suffix. The acceptable values are as follows: S-1, S-3, S-4, S-11, F-1, F-3, F-4, F-9, F-10, 6-K, 8-K, 10, 10-K, 10-Q, 20-F, 40-F, N-1A, 485BPOS, 497, NCSR, N-CSR, N-CSRS, N-Q, 10-KT, 10-QT, 20-FT, and Other.

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Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
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