US 12,748,223 B1Granted

System and method for event detection and high resolution time computation

AssigneeNational Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC

InventorsEric Emery Edwards, Liam D. Claus, Michael Mangan, Anthony P. Colombo, Quinn Michael Looker

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Abstract

Described herein are technologies related to detecting an event and computing a high resolution time value that indicates when the event was detected. Detector circuitry includes a pixelated array of photodetectors, where the detector circuitry is adapted to detect neutrons upon occurrence of a nuclear event. Timer circuitry includes a coarse counter, first ramp circuitry, and second ramp circuitry, and is adapted to compute a time value with a resolution of between 1-50 picoseconds based upon a count value output by the coarse counter and values of voltage ramps output by the first and second ramp circuitry.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

timer circuitry comprising:
a counter adapted to generate count values;
first ramp circuitry adapted to output a first voltage ramp;
and
second ramp circuitry adapted to output a second voltage ramp;
and
computation circuitry adapted to compute a high resolution time value that is indicative of a time that the timer circuitry received an event detection signal, the high resolution time value having a resolution of 1-5 picoseconds, the computation circuitry being adapted to compute the high resolution time value based upon:
a count value generated by the counter corresponding to the time that the timer circuitry received the event detection signal;
and
at least one of:
a first voltage value of the first voltage ramp, the first voltage value corresponding to the time that the timer circuitry received the event detection signal;
or
a second voltage value of the second voltage ramp, the second voltage value corresponding to the time that the timer circuitry received the event detection signal.

10 more elements

A system comprising:

detector circuitry comprising:
an array of photodetectors, a photodetector in the array of photodetectors being adapted to generate a detection signal in response to a neutron dislodging a charged particle in the photodetector, the detection signal indicating that the detector circuitry has detected the neutron;
and
timer circuitry being electrically coupled to the detector circuitry, the timer circuitry comprising:
a counter adapted to output count values;
first ramp circuitry adapted to output a first voltage ramp, a voltage of the first voltage ramp increasing or decreasing with respect to time;
and
second ramp circuitry adapted to output a second voltage ramp, a voltage of the second voltage ramp increasing or decreasing with respect to time;
wherein the timer circuitry is adapted to generate a value that is indicative of a time that the photodetector generated the detection signal based upon a count value in the count values that corresponds to the time that the photodetector generated the detection signal, upon a voltage value of the first voltage ramp that corresponds to the time that the photodetector generated the detection signal, and upon a second voltage value of the second voltage ramp that corresponds to the time that the photodetector generated the detection signal, the value having a resolution in time of between 1-5 picoseconds.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.