We describe a novel readout system for photon-counting microchannel plate detectors, based on a custom-designed event-driven CMOS Active Pixel Sensor (APS). The event-driven APS device is fiber-optically coupled to the microchannel plate intensifier in a configuration analogous to that employed in intensified CCDs (ICCDs). APS technology permits the incorporation of comparator circuitry within each pixel. When coupled with suitable CMOS logic outside the array area, the comparators can be used to trigger the readout of small sub-array windows only when and where intensified photon events have been detected. The event-driven APS readout thus completely eliminates the local dynamic range limitation of ICCDs, while achieving a high global count rate capability and delivering high (MCP-limited) spatial resolution (through sub-pixel centroiding of the event splashes, performed off-chip). We elaborate on this concept and the design of the event-driven APS below.
A high-speed event-driven active pixel sensor readout for photon-counting microchannel plate detectors
Future EUV/UV and Visible Space Astrophysics Missions and Instrumentation ; 2002 ; Waikoloa,Hawai'i,United States
Proc. SPIE ; 4854
2003-02-24
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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