Design and Characterization of 64K Pixels Chips Working in Single Photon Processing Mode

Progress in CMOS technology and in fine pitch bump bonding has made possible the development of high granularity single photon counting detectors for X-ray imaging. This thesis studies the design and characterization of three pulse processing chips with 65536 square pixels of 55 µm x 55 µm designed in a commercial 0.25 µm 6-metal CMOS technology. The 3 chips share the same architecture and dimensions and are named Medipix2, Mpix2MXR20 and Timepix. The Medipix2 chip is a pixel detector readout chip consisting of 256 x 256 identical elements, each working in single photon counting mode for positive or negative input charge signals. The preamplifier feedback provides compensation for detector leakage current on a pixel by pixel basis. Two identical pulse height discriminators are used to define an energy window. Every event falling inside the energy window is counted with a 13 bit pseudo-random counter. The counter logic, based in a shift register, also behaves as the input/output register for the pixel. Each cell also has an 8-bit configuration register which allows masking, test-enabling and 3-bit individual threshold adjust for each discriminator. The chip can be configured in serial mode and readout either serially or in parallel. Measurements show an electronic noise ~160 e- rms with a gain of ~9 mV/ke-. The threshold spread after equalization of ~120 e- rms brings the full chip minimum detectable charge to ~1100 e-. The analog static power consumption is ~8 µW per pixel with Vdda=2.2 V. The Mpix2MXR20 is an upgraded version of the Medipix2. The main changes in the pixel consist of: an improved tolerance to radiation, improved pixel to pixel threshold uniformity, and a 14-bit counter with overflow control. The chip periphery includes new threshold DACs with smaller step size, improved linearity, and better temperature dependence. Timepix is an evolution of the Mpix2MXR20 which provides independently in each pixel information of arrival time, time-over-threshold or event counting. Timepix uses as a time reference an external clock (Ref_Clk) up to 100 MHz which is distributed all over the pixel matrix during acquisition mode. The preamplifier is improved and there is a single discriminator with 4-bit threshold adjustment in order to reduce the minimum detectable charge limit. Measurements show an electrical noise ~100 e- rms and a gain of ~16.5 mV/ke-. The threshold spread after equalization of ~35 e- rms brings the full chip minimum detectable charge either to ~650 e- with a naked chip (i.e. gas detectors) or ~750 e- when bump-bonded to a detector. The pixel static power consumption is ~13.5 µW per pixel with Vdda=2.2 V and Ref_Clk=80 MHz. This family of chips have been used for a wide variety of applications. During these studies a number of limitations have come to light. Among those are limited energy resolution and surface area. Future developments, such as Medipix3, will aim to address those limitations by carefully exploiting developments in microelectronics

X-ray imaging using single photon processing with semiconductor pixel detectors

More than 10 years experience with semiconductor pixel detectors for vertex detection in high energy physics experiments together with the steady progress in CMOS technology opened the way for the development of single photon processing pixel detectors for various applications including medical X-ray imaging. The state of the art of such pixel devices consists of pixel dimensions as small as 55x55 um2, electronic noise per pixel <100 e- rms, signal-to-noise discrimination levels around 1000 e- with a spread <50 e- and a dynamic range up to 32 bits per pixel. Moreover, the high granularity of hybrid pixel detectors makes it possible to probe inhomogeneities of the attached semiconductor sensor

Research and Design of a Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络，作为全球未来十大技术之一，集成了传感器技术、嵌入式计算技术、分布式信息处理和自组织网技术，可实时感知、采集、处理、传输网络分布区域内的各种信息数据，在军事国防、生物医疗、环境监测、抢险救灾、防恐反恐、危险区域远程控制等领域具有十分广阔的应用前景。 本文研究分析了无线传感器网络的已有路由协议，并针对大规模的无线传感器网络设计了一种树状路由协议，它根据节点地址信息来形成路由，从而简化了复杂繁冗的路由表查找和维护，节省了不必要的开销，提高了路由效率，实现了快速有效的数据传输。 为支持此路由协议本文提出了一种自适应动态地址分配算——ADAR（AdaptiveDynamicAddre...As one of the ten high technologies in the future, wireless sensor network, which is the integration of micro-sensors, embedded computing, modern network and Ad Hoc technologies, can apperceive, collect, process and transmit various information data within the region. It can be used in military defense, biomedical, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, remote control of haz...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院通信工程系_通信与信息系统学号：2332007115216

First test measurements of a 64 k pixel readout chip working in single photon counting mode

The Medipix2 chip is a pixel detector readout chip consisting of 256 multiplied by 256 identical elements, each working in single photon counting mode for positive or negative input charge signals. The chip is designed and manufactured in a six-metal 0.25 mum CMOS technology. This paper describes several electrical measurements which have been carried out on the chip prior to detector bump bonding using a dedicated readout system. Threshold linearity and variation has been measured for both electron and hole collection. The noise is similar to 100 e**- RMS and the threshold can be adjusted to similar to 120 e **- RMS for both polarities. The minimum operating threshold is similar to 1000 e**-

Imaging by photon counting with 256 x 256 pixel matrix

Using 0.25 mum standard CMOS we have developed 2-D semiconductor matrix detectors with sophisticated functionality integrated inside each pixel of a hybrid sensor module. One of these sensor modules is a matrix of 256 multiplied by 256 square 55mum pixels intended for X- ray imaging. This device is called 'Medipix2' and features a fast amplifier and two-level discrimination for signals between 1000 and 100000 equivalent electrons, with overall signal noise similar to 150 e- rms. Signal polarity and comparator thresholds are programmable. A maximum count rate of nearly 1 MHz per pixel can be achieved, which corresponds to an average flux of 3 multiplied by 10exp10 photons per cm2. The selected signals can be accumulated in each pixel in a 13- bit register. The serial readout takes 5-10 ms. A parallel readout of similar to 300 mus could also be used. Housekeeping functions such as local dark current compensation, test pulse generation, silencing of noisy pixels and threshold tuning in each pixel contribute to the homogeneous response over a large sensor area. The sensor material can be adapted to the energy of the X-rays. Best results have been obtained with high-resistivity silicon detectors, but also CdTe and GaAs detectors have been used. The lowest detectable X-ray energy was about 4 keV. Background measurements have been made, as well as measurements of the uniformity of imaging by photon counting. Very low photon count rates are feasible and noise-free at room temperature. The readout matrix can be used also with visible photons if an energy or charge intensifier structure is interposed such as a gaseous amplification layer or a microchannel plate or acceleration field in vacuum

Signal variations in high granularity Si pixel detectors

Fixed pattern noise is one of the limiting factors of image quality and degrades the achievable spatial resolution. In the case of silicon sensors non-uniformities due to doping inhomogeneities can be limited by operating the sensor in strong overdepletion. For high granularity photon counting pixel detectors an additional high frequency interpixel signal variation is an important factor for the achievable signal to noise ratio (SNR). It is common practice to apply flatfield corrections to increase the SNR of the detector system. For the case of direct conversion detectors it can be shown that the Poisson limit can be reached for floodfield irradiation. However when used for imaging with spectral X-ray sources flatfield corrections are less effective. This is partly a consequence of charge sharing between adjacent pixels, which gives rise to an effective energy spectrum seen by the readout, which is different from the spectral content of the incident beam. In this paper we present simulations and measurements of the limited applicability of flatfield corrections for spectral source imaging and investigate the origins of the high frequency interpixel noise component The model, calculations and measurements performed suggest that flatfield correction maps for photon counting detectors with a direct conversion Si sensor can be obtained from electrical characterization of the readout chip alone. (11 refs)