Low power serial bias photoconductive detectors

摘要

An array (10) of photoconductive (PC) radiation detectors includes a substrate (1) and a body (12) of PC material that is disposed upon the substrate. The body of PC material has a substantially linear shape. A plurality of electrical interconnects (14, 15) are electrically coupled to the body of PC material for differentiating the body into a plurality of radiation detector sites, individual ones of the plurality of radiation detector sites being disposed in a serial arrangement with one another along a length of the body of PC material. The array further includes a bias current input terminal (16) that is electrically coupled to a first end of the body of PC material and a bias current output terminal (18) that is electrically coupled to a second end of the body of PC material. As a result, a bias current that is applied to the bias current input terminal, and that is extracted from the bias current output terminal, flows through each of the plurality of serially disposed radiation detector sites. Signal processing circuitry (32) has inputs coupled to the plurality of electrical interconnects, and includes differential amplifiers (34) for determining a difference in potential between two adjacent ones of the plurality of electrical interconnects. The difference in potential is a function of an amount radiation that is absorbed by a radiation detector site at an intervening portion of the body of PC material.