Patent ID: 7411233

Claim:
An active pixel sensor for producing images from electron-hole producing radiation comprising: A) a solid state radiation detection unit comprising: 1) a crystalline semiconductor substrate; 2) a plurality of Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor pixel circuits incorporated into said substrate to form an array of pixel circuits, wherein each pixel circuit of said array of pixel circuits comprises: a) a charge collecting pixel electrode; b) a charge sensing node; c) a pixel capacitor configured to store charges collected by said charge collecting pixel electrode; d) a charge holding circuit for isolating and holding charges collected by said charge collecting pixel electrode and stored on said pixel capacitor comprising at least one transistor, wherein said at least one transistor is electrically connected to said charge sensing node; 3) a radiation absorbing structure comprising P-B-I-N photodiode layers formed over said array of pixel circuits, wherein said P-B-I-N photodiode layers are photoconductive on exposure to electron-hole producing radiation; 4) a surface electrode layer comprised of electrically conducting material and formed on said radiation absorbing structure, wherein said surface electrode layer is at least partially transparent to said electron-hole producing radiation, and connected to a voltage source for establishing an electrical field across said radiation absorbing layer and between said surface electrode layer and each of said array of charge collecting pixel electrodes; and B) an array measurement circuit for measuring charges collected by each of said array of charge collecting pixel electrodes, and for outputting pixel data indicative of said collected charges, wherein said pixel data comprises information defining an image.