High sensitivity, high resolution detection of signals
First Claim
1. A semiconductor amplifier device that provides a signal representing the magnitude of an input signal, comprising:
- a semiconductor region including a plurality of spatially separate charge amplifiers configured such that in response to said input signal being coupled into the semiconductor amplifier device (i) the number of said charge amplifiers excited is a known monotonic function of the input signal magnitude over a predetermined dynamic range of the input signal, and (ii) to within a statistically significant metric each excited charge amplifier is excited by a respective quantity of charge that is known in advance of sensing the input signal and is independent of the input signal magnitude; and
at least one readout electrode coupled to said charge amplifiers to provide an output signal representing the number of charge amplifiers excited by the input signal.
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Abstract
A system and method providing for the detection of an input signal by distributing the input signal into independent signal components that are independently amplified. Detection of an input signal comprises generating from the input signal a plurality of spatially separate elementary charge components, each having a respective known number of elementary charges, the number of the plurality of spatially separate elementary charge components being a known monotonic function of the magnitude of said input signal; and independently amplifying each of the plurality of spatially divided elementary charge components to provide a respective plurality of signal charge packets, each signal charge packet having a second number of elementary charges greater than the respective known number by a respective amplification factor.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A semiconductor amplifier device that provides a signal representing the magnitude of an input signal, comprising:
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a semiconductor region including a plurality of spatially separate charge amplifiers configured such that in response to said input signal being coupled into the semiconductor amplifier device (i) the number of said charge amplifiers excited is a known monotonic function of the input signal magnitude over a predetermined dynamic range of the input signal, and (ii) to within a statistically significant metric each excited charge amplifier is excited by a respective quantity of charge that is known in advance of sensing the input signal and is independent of the input signal magnitude; and at least one readout electrode coupled to said charge amplifiers to provide an output signal representing the number of charge amplifiers excited by the input signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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Specification