A counting pixel readout chip for imaging applications

A pixel readout chip for imaging applications has been designed and tested. It consists of an array of 12 × 63 pixels with an active pixel cell area of 50 μm × 350 μm. Every pixel contains a low-noise charge sensitive amplifier, a CMOS comparator including individually adjustable thresholds, and a 15 bit counter realized using a linear feedback shift register. During data accumulation, every pixel independently counts the number of signal hits above threshold. After accumulation all counters in a column are sequentially read out, all columns in parallel. Thresholds can be set globally with the possibility of an individual threshold adjust in every cell. The chip can be operated with threshold settings in every cell well below equivalent noise charges (ENC) of 1000 electrons. The dead time of a pixel after being hit is ∼500 ns. The chip is alive for data accumulation in > 99.9% of the total data acquisition time. For photon counting in biomedical or material science applications, a suitable sensor with high Z material can be bump bonded to the counting chip.