Single photon imaging with a Bi-Linear charge-coupled device array

摘要

A Bi-Linear CCD Array is used to locate the centroid of a charge cloud produced by an MCP stack. Preferably, an anode comprises a checkerboard-like structure of x- and y- conductive pads. The x-pads are connected in columns and feed charge into x-charge buckets via a FET pass gate. The y-pads are connected in rows and feed charge into y- charge buckets via an FET gate. A conductive area collects charge that misses the x- or y- pads and is used to sense the arrival of a charge cloud. The x- and y-charge buckets, under the influence of x- and y-shift circuitry, pass their charge to x- and y-charge amplifiers. X- and y- counters keep track of the number of x- and y- shifts that occur before x- and y-detectors, connected to the x- and y-charge amplifier outputs respectively, locate the x- and y-bucket containing the most charge. Latching the x- and y-counter values when the respective x- and y-peaks occur captures the centroid coordinates of the charge cloud.