Burst-mode readout for solid state radiation detectors using partitioned pipeline architecture

A radiation detector system, comprising:

• a gantry;
• a radiation detector head mounted on said gantry, said radiation detector head including a scintillator and a solid-state photodetector coupled to detect photon emissions from said scintillator;
• an electronic circuit for processing a signal outputted from said photodetector, said electronic circuit including a shaper circuit that receives said output signal from said photodetector and integrates said output signal for a predetermined amount of time to produce an integrated signal, a switched sample/hold circuit that receives a sample of said integrated signal, and a trigger circuit that triggers a switch of said sample/hold circuit to receive said integrated signal when said output signal from said photodetector exceeds a predetermined threshold;
• an A/D converter that receives sample signals from said switched sample/hold circuit and converts such signals to digital data;
• a sample/hold output switch that connects an output of said switched sample/hold circuit to said A/D converter when closed in response to completion of integration by said shaper circuit;
• and
• a data processing system that receives said digital data and processes it to construct radiological images of a radiation distribution detected by said radiation detector head.