Patent ID: 11921245
Assignee: HAMAMATSU PHOTONICS K.K.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 9:
10. A method for photon counting the method comprising:
converting light input to respective photoelectric conversion elements of a plurality of pixels of a CMOS image sensor to charge;
amplifying, by an amplifier constituting each of the plurality of pixels, the converted charge and converting the charge to a voltage;
converting, by an A/D converter corresponding to one of the amplifiers constituting each of the plurality of pixels, the voltage output from the amplifier to a digital value and outputting the digital value; and
converting the digital value of each of the plurality of pixels output from the A/D converter to a number of photons by referring to reference data, for each of the plurality of pixels,
wherein a readout noise of the amplifier is equal to or less than 0.4 e-rms, and
wherein the reference data is threshold value data for distinguishing between adjacent numbers of photons.