Patent ID: 7696483

Claim:
A photon-counting detector comprising: a direct conversion material having an array of electrical contacts and constructed to directly convert an energy of at least one incident photon to an electrical signal on a first electrical contact; a data acquisition system having: a first comparator with a first signal level threshold corresponding to a first photon energy level, the first comparator configured to increment a first counter when the level of the electrical signal exceeds the first signal level threshold; a second comparator having a second signal level threshold corresponding to a second photon energy level greater than the first photon energy level, the second comparator configured to increment a second counter when the level of the electrical signal exceeds the second signal level threshold; an electrical readout layer electrically connected to the array of electrical contacts and designed to route the electrical signal on the first electrical contact to the first comparator and to the second comparator; and a device connected to the first counter for receiving a first count and connected to the second counter for receiving a second count, the device configured to determine a photon count by multiplying the second count by a factor and summing the result with the first count.