X-ray detectors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9588238-B2
Application number	US-201313853166-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2013
Priority date	Mar 30, 2012
Publication date	Mar 7, 2017
Grant date	Mar 7, 2017

Abstract

An X-ray detector may include a silicon substrate including a first area and a second area; a plurality of pixels in the first area configured to detect X-rays; a control pad in the second area configured to supply a common control signal to the plurality of pixels; and/or a power supply pad in the first area configured to supply a power supply voltage to groups of pixels grouped from among the plurality of pixels.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An X-ray detector, comprising:
a plurality of pixels configured to detect X-rays, wherein the pixels are grouped into a plurality of pixel arrays;
a control pad configured to supply a common control signal to the pixels;
a plurality of power supply pads, wherein each power supply pad is configured to supply a power supply voltage to a corresponding pixel array; and
a silicon substrate comprising a first area and a second area, wherein the first area is subdivided into a plurality of sub-areas, wherein each sub-area comprises one of the pixel arrays and the power supply pad corresponding to the pixel array, and wherein the second area comprises the control pad.

2. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein the second area comprises an edge area of the silicon substrate that surrounds the first area.

3. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein the pixel arrays are arranged into a n×m matrix form, where n is a natural number that is greater than or equal to 2 and m is a natural number that is greater than or equal to 1.

4. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , further comprising:
a printed circuit board (PCB);
wherein the power supply pads are connected to the PCB through conductive vias that penetrate the silicon substrate and ball pads between the silicon substrate and the PCB.

5. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein the second area is in an edge area of the silicon substrate.

6. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein some of the plurality of pixels are configured to directly receive the common control signal from the control pad, and a remainder of the plurality of pixels are configured to sequentially receive the common control signal through neighboring pixels.

7. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of pixels comprises:
a photoconductor configured to generate electric charges by using incident X-rays;
a charge sensitivity amplifier configured to amplify the electric charges generated from the photoconductor; and
a comparator configured to compare an output signal of the charge sensitivity amplifier with a first reference voltage and configured to output a result of the comparison.

8. The X-ray detector of claim 7 , wherein the charge sensitivity amplifier comprises:
an amplifier having a first input terminal configured to receive a second reference voltage; and
a capacitor of which one end is connected to the photoconductor and a second input terminal of the amplifier and of which another end is connected to the comparator and an output terminal of the amplifier.

9. The X-ray detector of claim 8 , wherein the first reference voltage is greater than the second reference voltage.

10. The X-ray detector of claim 7 , wherein the photoconductor comprises a single layer covering all of the plurality of pixels.

11. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein the first area and the second area have tetragonal shapes and are adjacent to each other.

12. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein the power supply pads comprise:
a first power supply pad that supplies a positive voltage; and
a second power supply pad that supplies 0 volts or a negative voltage.

13. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second control pad in the second area configured to supply the common control signal to the plurality of pixels;
wherein a first pixel from the plurality of pixels is configured to receive the common control signal from the control pad and the second control pad.

14. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein each pixel in the plurality of pixels comprises a photoconductor.

15. The X-ray detector of claim 1 , wherein the X-ray detector is of a direct type.

16. A system, comprising:
a first X-ray detector and a second X-ray detector, each of the X-ray detectors comprising:
a plurality of pixels configured to detect X-rays, wherein the pixels are grouped into a plurality of pixel arrays;
a control pad configured to supply a common control signal to the pixels;
a plurality of power supply pads, wherein each power supply pad is configured to supply a power supply voltage to a corresponding pixel array; and
a silicon substrate comprising a first area and a second area, wherein the first area is subdivided into a plurality of sub-areas, wherein each sub-area comprises one of the pixel arrays and the power supply pad corresponding to the pixel array, and wherein the second area comprises the control pad;

wherein the first area of the first X-ray detector and the first area of the second X-ray detector are adjacent to each other.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the second area of the first X-ray detector and the second area of the second X-ray detector are spaced apart from each other while interposing the first area of the first X-ray detector and the first area of the second X-ray detector between them.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the second area of the first X-ray detector and the second area of the second X-ray detector are adjacent to each other.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the first and second areas of the first X-ray detector and the first and second areas of the second X-ray detector have tetragonal shapes.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the second area of the first X-ray detector and the second area of the second X-ray detector have a shape of ‘ ’ or a shape of ‘ ’.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kim Young
• Lee Jun-Su
• Kim Sun-Il
• Park Jae-Chul
• Yoon Dae-Kun
• Han Sang-Wook

Classifications

• H01L27/14636

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G01T1/247 Primary

  Detector read-out circuitry (for processing gain or off-set correction H04N) · CPC title

• H01L27/14676

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10F39/811 Primary

  Interconnections · CPC title

• H10F39/195

  X-ray, gamma-ray or corpuscular radiation imagers · CPC title