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:
Aug. 07, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 11, 2007
Roger Steadman Booker, Aachen, DE;
Christian Baeumer, Aachen, DE;
Christoph Herrmann, Aachen, DE;
Guenter Zeitler, Aachen, DE;
Roger Steadman Booker, Aachen, DE;
Christian Baeumer, Aachen, DE;
Christoph Herrmann, Aachen, DE;
Guenter Zeitler, Aachen, DE;
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
The present invention relates to an apparatus () for counting X-ray photons (). The apparatus () comprises a sensor () adapted to convert a photon () into a charge pulse, a processing element () adapted to convert the charge pulse () into an electrical pulse () and a first discriminator () adapted to compare the electrical pulse () against a first threshold (TH) and to output an event () if the first threshold (TH) is exceeded. A first counter () counts these events (), unless counting is inhibited by a first gating element (). The first gating element () is activated when the first discriminator () outputs the event (), and it is deactivated, when the processing of a photon () is found to be complete or about to be completed by a measurement or by the knowledge about the time that it takes to process a photon () in the processing element (). By activating and deactivating the first counter () pile-up events, i.e. pile-up of multiple electrical pulses (), can be addressed. The invention also relates to a corresponding imaging device and a corresponding method.