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:
Jan. 23, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 08, 1999
Applicant:
Inventor:
Ralph C. Wolf, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Assignee:
Other;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01J 4/330 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01J 4/330 ;
Abstract
According to the present invention, a photomultiplier tube is used with a high-speed feedback mechanism to continuously modulate the gain of the tube in response to the size of the input signal. The gain of the tube and the anode current are independently converted to ideal logarithms. These signals are then subtracted from one another to reconstruct a true logarithmic representation of the optical signal. This log-light-level signal has a higher dynamic range and faster temporal response than has previously been achieved by other methods.