Semiconductor X-ray Detector Dark Current Correction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current semiconductor X-ray detectors face challenges in heat management, making it difficult to produce large-area detectors with a large number of pixels due to cumbersome heat management requirements.
Innovation Solution
The method involves determining dark current values at multiple locations on the detector to account for spatial variations in absorptance, allowing for accurate intensity distribution measurement by correcting for absorptance variations, and incorporating a communication module for data transfer and a high voltage circuit for powering the X-ray absorption layer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If semiconductor X-ray detectors use direct conversion of X-ray into electric signals, then spatial resolution is improved, but heat management becomes cumbersome making large-area detectors difficult to produce
Solution Approach 1:
The detector is divided into multiple pixels with individual readout circuits, allowing heat to be distributed and managed at the pixel level rather than concentrating thermal load in a single large detector. Each pixel operates independently with its own signal processing, enabling modular heat management.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dark current measurement circuits as intermediary components that measure and characterize the thermal effects in each pixel. By measuring dark current (signal generated by thermal effects alone), the system can identify and compensate for heat-related variations, acting as a mediator between the thermal problem and the imaging function.
2Device complexity
If dark current measurement is performed at only one location, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision of intensity distribution deteriorates due to uncorrected spatial variation in absorptance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by measuring dark current at multiple specific locations (at least three non-collinear points) across the detector surface rather than assuming uniform properties throughout. Each location's dark current measurement captures local variations in absorptance, enabling spatially-resolved correction of the intensity distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of measurement locations from a single point to multiple points across the detector. By varying the spatial parameter of where measurements are taken, the system captures the spatial variation in absorptance and uses this information to correct the overall intensity distribution measurement.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the production of large-area semiconductor X-ray detectors with improved heat management, allowing for precise intensity distribution measurement and efficient data communication, enhancing their applicability in medical and industrial imaging applications.
Implementation Method 1
A semiconductor X-ray detector may include a semiconductor layer that absorbs X-ray in wavelengths of interest. When an X-ray photon is absorbed in the semiconductor layer, multiple charge carriers (e.g., electrons and holes) are generated
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a method to measure an intensity distribution of X-ray using an X-ray detector, the method comprising: determining values of dark current at at least three locations on the X-ray detector, wherein the three locations are not on a straight line; determining a spatial variation of absorptance of the X-ray using the values of the dark current; measuring an apparent intensity distribution of the X-ray; determining the intensity distribution by removing a contribution of the spatial variation the absorptance from the apparent intensity distribution.