Patent ID: 9720109
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: G01T

Claim:
1. A silicon photomultiplier array comprising: a plurality of microcells having an output providing a pulse output in response to an incident radiation; a plurality of traces of equal length interconnecting each microcell output to one of a respective summing node and a respective integrated buffer amplifier, the integrated buffer amplifier configured to provide an output if a level of the incident radiation exceeds a threshold level; a trigger network including a controller configured to receive a threshold level setting from a user input, the controller configured to provide a threshold level reference to the respective integrated buffer amplifier; a trigger validation circuit configured to receive from the controller a primary threshold level and a validation threshold level, the primary threshold and the validation threshold levels each converted to an analog level by respective digital-to-analog converters; a primary discriminator configured to compare a pixel output signal to the analog primary threshold level, and to provide an output to a delay circuit if a leading edge of the pixel output signal is above the analog primary threshold level; a validation discriminator configured to compare the pixel output signal to the analog validation threshold level and provide an output to a first one-shot circuit if the pixel output signal is above the analog validation threshold level; an AND gate configured to compare a delay circuit output and a first one-shot circuit output, and provide a signal to a second one-shot circuit if the comparison indicates both signals present; and the second one-shot circuit configured to provide a pulse output to a time-to-digital converter.