An imaging system, comprising: a radiation source that emits radiation that traverses an examination region; a detector array with a plurality of photon counting detector pixels that detect radiation traversing the examination region and respectfully generate a signal indicative of the detected radiation, a photon counting detector pixel, comprising: a direct conversion layer having a first radiation receiving side and second opposing side; a cathode affixed to and covering all of or a substantial portion of the first side; an anode affixed to a centrally located region of the second side, wherein the anode includes at least two sub-anodes (120, 120 1, 120 2, 120 N); and a metallization acting as steering electrode affixed to the second side, surrounding the anode and the anode region, with a gap between the anode and the metallization; a substrate having at least two bonding pads (130, 130 1, 130 2, 130 N), one for each of the at least two sub-anodes, wherein each of the at least two bonding pads is physically and electrically coupled to a different one of the at least two sub-anodes; characterized in that the detector array further comprises:processing electronics; switching electronics configured to alternatively electrically couple only a single one of the at least two bonding pads to the processing electronics; and a reconstructor that reconstructs the signal to generate volumetric image data indicative of the examination region. a radiation source that emits radiation that traverses an examination region; a detector array with a plurality of photon counting detector pixels that detect radiation traversing the examination region and respectfully generate a signal indicative of the detected radiation, a photon counting detector pixel, comprising: a direct conversion layer having a first radiation receiving side and second opposing side; a cathode affixed to and covering all of or a substantial portion of the first side; an anode affixed to a centrally located region of the second side, wherein the anode includes at least two sub-anodes (120, 120 1, 120 2, 120 N); and a metallization acting as steering electrode affixed to the second side, surrounding the anode and the anode region, with a gap between the anode and the metallization; a direct conversion layer having a first radiation receiving side and second opposing side; a cathode affixed to and covering all of or a substantial portion of the first side; an anode affixed to a centrally located region of the second side, wherein the anode includes at least two sub-anodes (120, 120 1, 120 2, 120 N); and a metallization acting as steering electrode affixed to the second side, surrounding the anode and the anode region, with a gap between the anode and the metallization; a substrate having at least two bonding pads (130, 130 1, 130 2, 130 N), one for each of the at least two sub-anodes, wherein each of the at least two bonding pads is physically and electrically coupled to a different one of the at least two sub-anodes; characterized in that the detector array further comprises:processing electronics; switching electronics configured to alternatively electrically couple only a single one of the at least two bonding pads to the processing electronics; and a reconstructor that reconstructs the signal to generate volumetric image data indicative of the examination region.