Photon detector, method for producing a photon detector, and x-ray apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11076822-B2
Application number	US-201916689540-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2019
Priority date	Dec 3, 2018
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

A photon detector includes at least one sensor element, formed by a semiconductor material and sensitive to incident radiation, forming a pixel array including sensor pixels; and a detector circuit, situated after the sensor element in the direction of incident radiation, to detect charge carriers generated in the semiconductor material as a result of radiation. The detector circuit includes an integrated circuit with detector pixels in signal communication contact with the sensor pixels; and an enclosure surrounding the integrated circuit and in which the integrated circuit is embedded, and on which is formed on a pixel face facing the sensor element. A contact redistribution layer is formed, in which contact pads are formed for signal-communicatively connecting the detector pixels to the correspondingly assigned sensor pixels, and also conductor tracks are formed for connecting the contact pads to the detector pixels of the integrated circuit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A photon detector, comprising:
at least one sensor element, formed by a semiconductor material and sensitive to incident radiation, the at least one sensor element forming a pixel array and including a number of sensor pixels; and
a detector circuit, situated after the at least one sensor element in a direction of incident radiation, to detect charge carriers generated in the semiconductor material of the sensor element as a result of radiation, wherein the detector circuit includes an integrated circuit including a number of detector pixels, the number of detector pixels being in signal communication contact with the number of sensor pixels,
wherein a surface dimension of the integrated circuit is relatively less than a surface dimension of the sensor element by more than one pixel width of the number of sensor pixels,
wherein the detector circuit includes
an enclosure, surrounding the integrated circuit, the integrated circuit being embedded in the enclosure and a pixel face being formed on the enclosure, the pixel face facing the at least one sensor element, and
a contact redistribution layer, contact pads being formed in the contact redistribution layer for signal-communicatively connecting respective detector pixels, of the number of detector pixels, to correspondingly assigned sensor pixels of the number of sensor pixels, and conductor tracks being formed in the contact redistribution layer, for connecting the contact pads to the number of detector pixels of the integrated circuit.

2. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the integrated circuit is embedded in the enclosure, flush with a surface of the enclosure and without any gaps along edges of the enclosure.

3. The photon detector of claim 2 , wherein the contact redistribution layer is formed by a thin film application process.

4. The photon detector of claim 2 , wherein the detector circuit, through the integrated circuit, is fabricated by fan-out wafer-level chip-scale packaging.

5. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the contact redistribution layer is formed by a thin film application process.

6. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the detector circuit, through the integrated circuit, is fabricated by fan-out wafer-level chip-scale packaging.

7. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the detector circuit includes, in a region of the enclosure, at least one via for the signal communication connection to a subsequent control and at least one of an analysis unit and a subsequent signal-routing device.

8. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of detector circuits are assigned to a sensor element, of the at least one sensor element, and make contact with the sensor element in a grid formation, so that each integrated circuit is connected to a separately assigned group of the number of sensor pixels of the at least one sensor element.

9. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor element includes a plurality of sensor elements and the detector includes at least two detectors, the plurality of sensor elements being arranged side by side and each of the plurality of sensor elements including a plurality of correspondingly assigned detector circuits of the at least two detector circuits, and wherein a respective enclosure of each of at least two respective detector circuits, of the at least two detector circuits, are formed together integrally.

10. The photon detector of claim 9 , wherein at least two sensor elements of the plurality of sensor elements, arranged side by side, are joined to a plurality of detector circuits integrally joined via a respective enclosure.

11. The photon detector of claim 9 , wherein the enclosure of each of at least two detector circuits are formed together monolithically.

12. The photon detector of claim 11 , wherein at least two sensor elements of the plurality of sensor elements, arranged side by side, are joined to a plurality of detector circuits integrally joined via a respective enclosure.

13. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the detector circuit is configured to identify a charge-sharing event, by adjacent detector pixels, of the number of detector pixels, of the integrated circuit being signal-communicatively interconnected.

14. The photon detector of claim 13 , wherein, to identify the charge-sharing event, detector pixels of two integrated circuits, arranged side by side in integrally joined enclosures and facing one another along edges, are signal-communicatively connected to one another via the contact redistribution layer of the enclosure.

15. The photon detector of claim 14 , wherein the two integrated circuits arranged side by side by integrally joined enclosures, and are signal-communicatively connected using the contact redistribution layer of the enclosure.

16. A medical X-ray apparatus, comprising:
the photo detector of claim 1 .

17. The medical X-ray apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the medical X-ray apparatus is a computed tomography apparatus.

18. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the photo detector is an X-ray radiation detector.

19. The photon detector of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor element includes a plurality of sensor elements and wherein a plurality of detector circuits are assigned to a sensor element, of the plurality of sensor elements, and make contact with the sensor element in a grid formation, so that each integrated circuit is connected to a separately assigned group of the number of the sensor element.

20. A medical X-ray apparatus, comprising:
the x-ray radiation detector of claim 18 .

21. The medical X-ray apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the medical X-ray apparatus is a computed tomography apparatus.

22. A method for producing a photon detector including at least one sensor element and a detector circuit, the detector circuit being situated after the sensor element in a direction of incident radiation, the method comprising:
providing at least one sensor element, the at least one sensor element being formed by a semiconductor material and being sensitive to incident radiation, wherein the at least one sensor element forms a pixel array including a number of sensor pixels;
providing the detector circuit, the detector circuit being used to detect charge carriers generated in the semiconductor material of the at least one sensor element as a result of radiation, and the detector circuit including an integrated circuit including a number of detector pixels, a surface dimension of the integrated circuit being relatively smaller than a surface dimension of the at least one sensor element by more than one pixel width of the number of sensor pixels; and
placing the detector pixels in signal communication contact with the sensor pixels via a contact redistribution layer arranged on an enclosure, the integrated circuit being embedded on the enclosure.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the detector circuit includes the integrated circuit and is fabricated by fan-out wafer-level chip-scale packaging.

Assignees

• Siemens Healthcare Gmbh

Inventors

• Ergler Thorsten
• Hosemann Michael

Classifications

• H10F39/1892

  Direct radiation image sensors · CPC title

• H10F39/811

  Interconnections · CPC title

• H10F39/1895

  of the hybrid type · CPC title

• G01T1/2928

  using solid state detectors · CPC title

• A61B6/4241

  using energy resolving detectors, e.g. photon counting · CPC title