58 results about "APDS" patented technology

The automated solution injection-discharge system is used as an APDS system to supply and discharge a dialysate and a patient's drain. And an automated solution injection-discharge system provides free of contamination and operation mistakes, and can accurately control the injected dialysate volume and the discharged dwell solution volume even when a patient does not maintain a fixed posture while replacing the solution.

A wireless LAN environment includes at least one access point that supports a number of wireless communications devices which are configured to operate in the U-APSD mode. The transmission of packets by an access point to a wireless communications device operating in the U-APDS mode can be accomplished in an efficient manner by coordinating the unscheduled service periods of the wireless communication devices. The service periods are placed into a tightly packed list ordered according to a network address associated with each wireless communications device.

A multi-pixel photodetector array may include a semiconductor substrate having a back side and a front side, Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes (GM-APDs) on the semiconductor substrate, each including an anode contact, and a common cathode for the GM-APDs and having a first connection lead on the backside of the semiconductor substrate. The multi-pixel photodetector array may include a second connection lead, and a common anode on the front side of the semiconductor substrate and configured to couple in common the anode contacts of the GM-APDs to the second connection lead. Each GM-APD may be configured to generate, when a photon impinges thereon, a current pulse of different shape for discrimination by an external circuit connected to the common cathode and the common anode.

The automated solution injection-discharge system is used as an APDS system to supply and discharge a dialysate and a patient's drain. And an automated solution injection-discharge system provides free of contamination and operation mistakes, and can accurately control the injected dialysate volume and the discharged dwell solution volume even when a patient does not maintain a fixed posture while replacing the solution.

Methods and apparatus are provided, as an aspect of a combined CPU/APD architecture system, for discovering and reporting properties of devices and system topology that are relevant to efficiently scheduling and distributing computational tasks to the various computational resources of a combined CPU/APD architecture system. The combined CPU/APD architecture unifies CPUs and APDs in a flexible computing environment. In some embodiments, the combined CPU/APD architecture capabilities are implemented in a single integrated circuit, elements of which can include one or more CPU cores and one or more APD cores. The combined CPU/APD architecture creates a foundation upon which existing and new programming frameworks, languages, and tools can be constructed.

The present invention enables the detection of light using an APD that has high gain and/or a wide range of operating temperature. A first APD is biased with a voltage bias that is controlled based on the breakdown voltage of a second APD, which is thermally coupled with the first APD. Changes in the breakdown voltage of the second APD due to aging, temperature chances, and the like, are reflective of changes in the breakdown voltage of the first APD. As a result, the first APD can be operated with greater stability and reliability at high gain and over larger temperature excursions than APDs known in the prior art.

Dual channel silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) can replace PMTs and APDs for use in PET and other radiation detectors. The devices are compact, have high gain, high QE and low noise. Due to their timing performance, these devices can be used in time-of-flight PET applications. By dividing the device into two separate channels, one for timing resolution and one for energy resolution, both can be optimized simultaneously.

A high performance imaging system for diffuse optical tomography is disclosed. A dense grid utilizing sources, e.g., light emitting diodes (“LEDs”), that achieve high performance at high speed with a high dynamic range and low inter-channel crosstalk are complemented by a system of discrete, isolated receivers, e.g., avalanche photodiodes (“APDs”). The source channels have dedicated reconfigurable encoding control signals, and the detector channels have reconfigurable decoding, allowing maximum flexibility and optimal mixtures of frequency and time encoding and decoding. Each detector channel is analyzed by dedicated, isolated, high-bandwidth receiver circuitry so that no channel gain switching is necessary. The resulting improvements to DOT system performance, e.g., increased dynamic range and decreased crosstalk, enable higher density imaging arrays and provide significantly enhanced DOT image quality. A processor can be utilized to provide sophisticated three dimensional modeling as well as noise reduction.

An avalanche photodiode (APD) electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) detector is described. The detector includes an EMR absorption region, a voltage biasing element, and a charge multiplication region. The EMR absorption region includes a substantially regular array of nano-particles embedded in a matrix material. The voltage biasing element is configured to apply a bias voltage to the matrix material such that electrical current is directly generated in the EMR absorption region based on a cooperative plasmon effect in the detector material when electro-magnetic radiation in a predetermined wavelength range is incident upon the detector material, where the dominant mechanism for decay in the cooperative plasmon effect is non-radiative. The charge multiplication region is arranged relative to the EMR absorption region to avalanche multiply the electrical current generated in the EMR absorption region.

Methods and systems for enhancing the dynamic range of a high sensitivity inspection system are presented. The dynamic range of a high sensitivity inspection system is increased by directing a portion of the light collected from each pixel of the wafer inspection area toward an array of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) operating in Geiger mode and directing another portion of the light collected from each pixel of the wafer inspection area toward another array of photodetectors having a larger range. The array of APDs operating in Geiger mode is useful for inspection of surfaces that generate extremely low photon counts, while other photodetectors are useful for inspection of larger defects that generate larger numbers of scattered photons. In some embodiments, the detected optical field is split between two different detectors. In some other embodiments, a single detector includes both APDs operating in Geiger mode and other photodetectors having a larger range.

A method and apparatus for providing non-linear, passive quenching of avalanche currents in Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (APDs) is provided. A non-linear, passive, current-limiting device is connected in series with the APD and a bias source. The non-linear, passive, current-limiting device rapidly quenches avalanche currents generated by the APD in response to an input photon and resets the APD for detecting additional photons, using a minimal number of components. The non-linear, passive, current-limiting device could comprise a field-effect transistor (FET), as well as a junction FET (JFET) a metal-oxide semiconductor FET (MOSFET), or a current-limiting diode (CLD) connected in series with the APD and the bias source.

Starved source diffusion methods for forming avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are provided for controlling the edge effect. The edge effect is controlled by reducing edge gain near the edges of an APD active region. This is accomplished by creating a sloped diffusion front near the edges of the active region. The sloped diffusion front is advantageously formed in a single doping step by using a patterned mask during doping. The patterned mask reduces the depth to which dopants diffuse in areas where it only partly covers the underlying layer. By covering more of the underlying layer nearer the edge and progressively less towards the center, the sloped diffusion front is formed. The shallower diffusion depth near the edge reduces the edge gain, and therefore the edge effect. As a result, an APD to fiber misalignment is less likely, and possibility of edge breakdown is greatly reduced.

Avalanche photodiodes are provided, wherein the APDs provide both high optical coupling efficiency and low dark count rate. The APDs are formed such that their cap layer has an active region of sufficient width to enable high optical coupling efficiency but the APD still exhibits a low dark count rate. These cap layers have a device area with an active region and an edge region, wherein the size of the active region is substantially matched to the mode-field diameter of an optical beam, and wherein the size of the edge region is made small so as to reduce the number of defects included. These APD designs maintain a substantially uniform gain and breakdown voltage, as necessary for practical use.

Several detailed layout designs are disclosed, for the monolithic integration of avalanche devices in large arrays, that can be operated as Avalanche Photo-Diodes (APDs) or Avalanche Light Emitting Diodes (ALEDs) depending only on the applied bias conditions, which can be software-controlled from peripheral circuitry. If the deposited films have direct bandgaps, then the devices can emit light even in the absence of avalanche operation. In particular, the layouts according to the invention comprise a sensor/emitter matrix achieved through the replication of basic Pixel/Lixel cells.

The invention discloses a novel Si-APD (Silicon-Avalanche Photo Diode) device. The novel Si-APD device comprises a first single Si-APD and a second single Si-APD which are arranged adjacently in parallel, wherein the first single Si-APD corresponds to a light window and serves as a light detection unit; the second single Si-APD is set in backlight and serves as a breakdown voltage detection unit; the first single Si-APD and the second single Si-APD share the same negative pole. Based on the principle that the properties of adjacent devices in the integrated circuit technology are consistent with each other, and paired Si-APDs are adopted; the first single Si-APD is used for detecting light and the second single Si-APD serves as the breakdown voltage detection unit; an optimal bias effect can be achieved, just by means of detecting the dark current of the second single Si-APD, stabilizing the value of the dark current via a negative feedback control loop, and utilizing the voltage when the value of the dark current is maintained at a set value to serve as the work bias voltage of the first single Si-APD, so that the complicacy problem of the traditional dynamic bias is solved, the complicacy degree and cost of a distance measuring system are lowered, and the novel Si-APD device is simple and practical.

The invention is a closed ring feedback control distribution type optical fiber temperature sensing system at non-constant temperature, mainly comprising a laser, an output end of which is connected with a light-way divider; one section of a start portion of measuring optical fiber output by the light-way divider is selected as reference optical fiber and temperature in periphery is measured by platinum resistor; the light-way divider divides retrodiffusion lights into Stocks and antiStocks lights which are transmitted to an APD group composed of two APDs in an APD receiving and control module provided with a platinum resistor which affects multiplying parameter of factor of APD optical electrical conversion signal; temperature of work environment of APD is transmitted to the control unit which adjusts voltage of the APD via a high voltage plate to maintain the multiplying parameter of APD optical electrical conversion signal invariable to receive optical electrical signal stably; the other by platinum resistor measures environmental temperature of position where the optical fiber is. After AD conversion and algorithm process, the optical fiber sensing temperature can be calibrated.

PET detector modules are provided within a multi-dimensional magnetic field, to confine the range of emitted positrons from an object being imaged to improve spatial resolution of reconstructed PET images. Each module includes a number of independent, optically isolated detectors. Each detector includes an array of scintillator crystals read out by an array of APDs (avalanche photodiodes).