Claims
- 1. An apparatus for determining the position of incidence of radiation, comprising:
a solid-state device with internal gain; a termination structure integral to said solid state device that causes charge generated in response to said radiation to spread in a manner that depends on said position of incidence of said radiation, and an assembly that obtains electrical signals from said solid state device in response to said incidence of radiation, wherein said position of incidence of said radiation is calculated using a plurality of said electrical signals.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising at least one scintillator element positioned to capture high energy radiation and emit lower energy radiation on said solid state device.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said solid-state device is an avalanche photodiode.
- 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said avalanche photodiode comprises a guard ring field spreading structure to prevent edge breakdown under high reverse bias.
- 5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said avalanche photodiode comprises a diffused bevel field spreading structure to prevent edge breakdown under high reverse bias.
- 6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said avalanche photodiode comprises a mechanical bevel field spreading structure to prevent edge breakdown under high reverse bias.
- 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a distortion of said position of incidence calculated from said electrical signals is reduced.
- 8. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising termination lines to reduce distortion in position of incidence information calculated from said electrical signals.
- 9. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising charge sensitive amplifiers wherein said electrical signals are obtained by resistive, rise time, capacitive, or inductive coupling to said charge sensitive amplifiers.
- 10. An apparatus for determining the position of incidence of radiation, comprising
a solid-state device with internal gain, a plurality of electrically conductive structures integral to said device and separated by a resistance that is higher than the resistance that would exist between said electrically conductive structures due to intrinsic resistivity of said solid state device, a structure that obtains electrical signals from said device in response to said incidence of radiation, and a system for calculating said position of incidence of radiation using a plurality of said electrical signals.
- 11. The apparatus of claim 10, comprising at least one scintillator element positioned to capture high energy radiation and emit lower energy radiation on said solid state device.
- 12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said solid-state device is an avalanche photodiode.
- 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said avalanche photodiode comprises a guard ring field spreading structure to prevent edge breakdown under high reverse bias.
- 14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said avalanche photodiode comprises a diffused bevel field spreading structure to prevent edge breakdown under high reverse bias.
- 15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said avalanche photodiode comprises a mechanical bevel field spreading structure to prevent edge breakdown under high reverse bias.
- 16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said system for calculation of said position of incidence reduces distortion in said position of incidence calculated from said electrical signals.
- 17. The apparatus of claim 10, comprising one or more termination lines between said electrically conductive structures, disposed to reduce distortion in said position of incidence calculated from said electrical signals.
- 18. The method of claim 10, comprising charge sensitive amplifiers, wherein said electrical signals are obtained by resistive or rise time coupling to said charge sensitive amplifiers.
- 19. A method for constructing a large area avalanche photodiode that comprises a substrate on which a cathode side is formed, the method comprising:
masking off a contact pattern comprising a plurality of contacts regions on said cathode side of said avalanche photodiode; etching an unmasked portion of said cathode side back into said substrate far enough that when said avalanche photodiode is reverse biased, there is an increased resistance between any two of said contact regions.
- 20. The method of claim 19, wherein said contact pattern on said cathode side of said device comprises four contacts disposed at corners of a rectangle.
- 21. The method of claim 19, wherein said increased resistance is between hundreds to thousands of ohms.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/035,684, filed Nov. 1, 2001, now allowed, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
[0002] This invention is partially the result of work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant contract number DMI-9901717 and grant contract number DMI-9761316.
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10035684 |
Nov 2001 |
US |
Child |
10877545 |
Jun 2004 |
US |