Patent ID: 7378634

Claim:
An imaging apparatus that images light, the apparatus comprising: a semiconductor-based photon converter that collects light and converts the collected light into electrical charge; a charge coupled device (CCD) based electron multiplication device that operates by impact ionization and is coupled to the photon converter that multiplies the electrical charge, the electron multiplication device associated with a plurality of taps, each tap producing the electrical charge with an associated level of gain; a plurality of voltage converters coupled to the plurality of taps associated with the electron multiplication device, each voltage converter coupled to a respective one of the plurality of taps to generate a respective voltage signal representing the collected light; and a processor selectively coupled to at least two of the plurality of voltage converters for selectively combining the analog voltage signals output by the at least two of the plurality of voltage converters so as to produce an overall output signal corresponding to an output voltage versus input photon signal characteristic that has at least one break point beyond which the output of one of the at least two analog voltage signals clipped while the other of the two continues to grow, and beyond which the slope of the characteristic decreases the clipped signal remaining as a DC offset in the overall out signal.