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:
Mar. 03, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 26, 1996
William J Hamilton, Jr, Ventura, CA (US);
HE Holdings, Inc., Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A large area radiation detector (1) includes a volume of semiconductor material (24) that is responsive to ionizing radiation for generating charge carriers, a first electrode (26) coupled to one surface of the volume of semiconductor material, and a plurality of second electrodes (20, 22) coupled to a second surface of the volume of semiconductor material. Individual ones of the second electrodes are associated with an underlying region of the volume of semiconductor material for collecting charge carriers from the underlying region. The detector further includes circuitry (30, 31, 32) coupled to the plurality of second electrodes for summing charge carriers collected by the plurality of second electrodes to produce an output signal, and a mechanism for selectively decoupling individual ones of the second electrodes from the circuitry. In one embodiment the circuitry includes electrically conductive traces (16) that couple individual ones of the second electrodes to a summing junction (31), and the mechanism for selectively decoupling includes physically opening a trace to disconnect the second electrode from the summing junction. In a further embodiment the mechanism for selectively decoupling includes a semiconductor switch (34) that is coupled in series with each of the traces.