The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 06, 1997
Filed:
Sep. 07, 1995
William J Hamilton, Jr, Ventura, CA (US);
David R Rhiger, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Santa Barbara Research Center, Goleta, CA (US);
Abstract
A three terminal solid-state ionizing radiation detector (10) includes a first layer (18) of a substantially intrinsic Group II-VI compound semiconductor material, such as CdZnTe. The first layer is responsive to incident ionizing radiation for generating electron-hole pairs. The detector further includes a second layer (24) of Group II-VI compound semiconductor material and a third layer (20) of Group II-VI compound semiconductor material that is interposed between first surfaces of the first layer and the second layer. The third layer functions as a grid layer. A first electrical contact (12, 17) is coupled to a second surface of the first layer, a second electrical contact (29, 30) is coupled to a second surface of the second layer, and a third electrical contact (22) is coupled to the third layer for connecting the detector to an external circuit that establishes an electric field across the detector. The electric field causes holes to drift away from the grid layer towards the first contact while electrons drift towards and through the grid layer, through the second layer, and towards the second contact for generating a detectable output signal pulse. Because of the presence of the grid layer only the electrons contribute to the output pulse. The grid layer has a conductivity type such that electrons are a minority charge carrier within the grid layer.