Method of controlling the charging of a photomuliplier tube including sampling at least one of the dynodes for determining its voltage
AssigneeThe Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
InventorJohn Gardner
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Abstract
A photomultiplier tube circuit with reduced power consumption comprising a photomultiplier tube having a plurality of dynodes, charging circuitry for providing charge to the plurality of dynodes and an oscillator for providing a high voltage supply to the charging circuitry characterised in that the photomultiplier tube circuit further comprises means for sampling the voltage of at least one of the dynodes and a switching means for switching the oscillator on and off with respect to the at least one dynode voltage sampled.
Claims2
A method of controlling the charging of a photomultiplier tube having a plurality of dynodes using a charging means comprising the cycle of:
- charging the dynodes to a predetermined voltage;
- switching off the charging means;
- sampling at least one of the dynodes to determine its voltage;
- switching on the charging means when the sampled dynode voltage drops below a predetermined voltage.
A method of controlling the charging of a photomultiplier tube having a plurality of dynodes using a charging means comprising the cycle of:
- switching on the charging means for a predetermined maximum period of time;
- during the predetermined maximum period of time sampling at least one of the dynodes to determine its voltage;
- switching off the charging means when the sampled dynode voltage reaches a predetermined level or the maximum period of time is reached;
- waiting for a predetermined period of time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.