Patent ID: 7564039

Claim:
An ionizing radiation counting detector comprising: a first substrate; a second substrate generally parallel to said first substrate and forming a gap with said first substrate; a gas contained within said gap; at least one first electrode coupled to said first substrate; at least one second electrode coupled to said second substrate; at least one third electrode coupled to said second substrate; a second impedance coupled to said second electrode; a third impedance coupled to said third electrode; a power supply coupled to said first electrode; a first discharge event detector coupled to said second impedance; a second discharge event detector coupled to said third impedance; and a plurality of pixels defined by said second electrode and said third electrode, each pixel capable of outputting a gas discharge pulse upon interaction with ionizing radiation wherein each gas discharge pulse has approximately an equal value; wherein said first and second discharge event detectors comprise detection circuitry for detecting if a gas discharge pulse is output from the pixels and for counting each gas discharge pulse as an individual discharge event, said detection circuitry comprising timestamp circuitry coupled to said first discharge event detector and said second discharge event detector that timestamps discharge events detected by said first discharge event detector and said second discharge event detector and combines discharge events having the same timestamp; wherein an amount of detected radiation is based on the number of counted discharge events.