EP0053530A1 - Tube photodétecteur à multiplication d'électrons utilisable dans un lecteur vidéo couleur - Google Patents

Tube photodétecteur à multiplication d'électrons utilisable dans un lecteur vidéo couleur Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0053530A1
EP0053530A1 EP81401754A EP81401754A EP0053530A1 EP 0053530 A1 EP0053530 A1 EP 0053530A1 EP 81401754 A EP81401754 A EP 81401754A EP 81401754 A EP81401754 A EP 81401754A EP 0053530 A1 EP0053530 A1 EP 0053530A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
tube
anode
tube according
photocathode
light
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP81401754A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Inventor
Jean-Claude Reymond
Michel Blamoutier
Yves René Beauvais
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Thales SA
Original Assignee
Thomson CSF SA
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Thomson CSF SA filed Critical Thomson CSF SA
Publication of EP0053530A1 publication Critical patent/EP0053530A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
    • H01J31/00—Cathode ray tubes; Electron beam tubes
    • H01J31/08—Cathode ray tubes; Electron beam tubes having a screen on or from which an image or pattern is formed, picked up, converted, or stored
    • H01J31/26—Image pick-up tubes having an input of visible light and electric output
    • H01J31/265—Image pick-up tubes having an input of visible light and electric output with light spot scanning

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an electron multiplication photodetector tube.
  • Electron multiplier tubes are known in which the multiplication of a primary electron beam is obtained by a series of secondary electronic emissions inside a set of rectilinear channels, of very small diameter, parallel and placed in a longitudinal electric field.
  • Multiplier tubes of this kind include an insulating body pierced with very small diameter channels, coated on their internal walls with a very thin resistive layer, endowed with the property of secondary electronic emission with a coefficient greater than unity, while a potential difference, established between the ends of the coatings creates in the channels a longitudinal electric field.
  • a beam of primary electrons penetrating into the channels from various angles, gives rise to a series of secondary electronic emissions on the internal coatings so that at the exit of the channels the number of electrons is strongly increased compared to that of the primary beam.
  • Multiplier tubes of this type and their applications to devices known as "light amplifiers” or “image intensifiers” have been described in various publications, in particular in French patent 1,465,381 of March 24, 1965 relating to improvements according to which the electron multiplier body, or microchannel wafer, is produced by drilling a silicon diode polarized in the blocking direction.
  • the object of the invention is to change the function of the tube, in this case that it becomes a light detector by modifying its structure, light detection being understood as well as detection of a single luminous flux. , or a limited number luminous flux, or a relatively high number of flux corresponding to the different points of an image.
  • An object of the invention is to obtain such a photodetector tube by replacing the fluorescent screen normally placed at the rear of the microchannel plate by an anode forming a solid diode polarized in the blocking direction.
  • the anode consists of one or more elements according to the intended use, in particular, a mosaic of elements allows the detection of a video image.
  • the detector tube is produced with an anode composed of four detector quadrants, this configuration being advantageously usable in video image video player devices (slides, films, etc.) using an analyzer tube with mobile spot called “flying spot” and where we must extract the three channels by trichromatic optical separation followed by photodetection and multiplication of electrons.
  • the electron multiplier tube comprises, in a known manner and placed in an enclosure 1 under vacuum, a photocathode 2 followed by a body or wafer 3 pierced with channels, then a third electrode 4.
  • a high voltage generator represented by a DC voltage source 5 and a resistive divider 6, develops the various voltages supply to produce at the terminals of the electrodes of the tube to establish between the elements 2, 3 and 4, the potential differences desired to ensure operation, these voltages Ul, U2, U3, which can be from a few hundred to a few thousand volts .
  • the ends of the channels facing the photocathode are brought to a higher potential than the photocathode and the opposite ends to a lower potential than the electrode 4.
  • the electrode 4 is a planar anode constituted by a solid diode polarized in the blocking direction by a continuous polarization source 7 annex, this anode itself being produced in the form of one or more distinct elements.
  • a single detector element is considered for simplification.
  • the anode is advantageously made with a P-type silicon substrate in which a fine N-type diffusion has been carried out, so as to obtain a PN junction reverse biased by the source 7.
  • the PN junction is preferable to the NP junction for questions of speed and quantum efficiency.
  • the junction can also include a Schottky barrier.
  • the detected video signal SV is recovered on the corresponding electrode at the terminals of a load resistor 8.
  • the tube To process a light image the tube must, in a conventional manner, be associated with a receiving optic 9 whose function is to produce, by focusing or otherwise, the light image in the plane of the photocathode.
  • the optics can consist of a dioptric or catadioptric objective, possibly followed by a window in optical fibers. To process a single luminous flux, or a limited number of distinct incident fluxes, the optics 9 is not necessary.
  • the electrons emitted reach the anode 4.
  • These electrons are accelerated by the voltage U3 of high value, for example 5 KV, so as to present a significant kinetic energy, in this case 5 KeV.
  • the anode 4 By striking the anode 4, they create electron-hole pairs which are separated by the field prevailing in the space charge of the P-N junction, and a detected current IS can thus flow in the external circuit.
  • an energy of the order of 3.5 eV per incident electron is required.
  • the energy of an electron can be of the order of 5 KeV, which means that the current gain can be of the order of 1,400.
  • a gain of 1000 can be obtained.
  • the creation of the pairs takes place at a depth of penetration into the silicon of the order of 1 ⁇ m and the created pairs can be separated by the junction close to the receiving surface with a yield close to unity.
  • the gain G 2 thus obtained by the detection 4 is added to the electronic gain G l of the microchannels 3, so that the current IS which leaves the device is equal to G l x G 2 times the value IO of the electron current which attacks the microchannels.
  • the total gain of the tube can, in the aforementioned concept, be between 1.5 10 5 and 3 10 5 , these values being indicated without limitation.
  • the tube is preferably arranged, upstream of the electron multiplier according to the assembly of FIG. 2 or 3.
  • This arrangement is known in light image intensifier tubes incorporating a photocathode 11 arranged on an input window 12 in optical fibers to convert the input light image into an electronic image and a focusing anode 13 in the form of a cone acting as an electrostatic lens; a correcting electrode 14 can also be placed between the conical anode 13 and the multiplier wafer 3, in order to improve the linearity and the geometry of the image.
  • the tube can be used to amplify separately and in parallel several optical signals incident simultaneously on photocathode 11.
  • Figure 3 shows the path of two separate beams F1, F2, but is not limiting.
  • the electrons emitted by photocathode 11 because of the light flux F1 strike the region A of the microchannel plate; similarly the distinct flow F2 reaches the distinct region B of the wafer.
  • These two electron flows are amplified separately in the microchannel amplifier and it suffices to have two anodes 4-1 and 4-2 to obtain the currents IS1 and IS2 corresponding respectively to the amplified optical input signals F1 and F2.
  • the anode 4 will consist of a detector mosaic, each element of which corresponds to a point of the electronic image and therefore to an elementary flux located at the level of the input. of the tube.
  • a mosaic of P nxm elements distributed in n rows and m columns, we thus treat P incident elementary fluxes leading to the photocathode 11 at the conjugate locations of P detector elements.
  • CCD charge coupled device
  • the planar anode 4 can be sensitized by residual light radiation which would have passed through the electrodes upstream.
  • a very thin, opaque screen is interposed on the electronic path.
  • This screen can be produced in the form of a deposit 15 on one of the lateral faces of the multiplier wafer, it being understood that it covers the entire face in question.
  • the screen 15 may consist of a very thin layer of silica (SI0 2 ) or of alumina (AI 0) or of any other light metal oxide.
  • the screen 15 retains the ions which are torn from the microchannel electrode 3 and which would otherwise be transported on the photocathode, thus preserving the technical characteristics of the tube.
  • One of the possible applications of the tube according to the invention relates to the detection of signals from the trichrome analysis of a color image carried by a film.
  • Fig. 4 shows a color image video player corresponding to such an application and using a mobile spot analyzer tube, commonly called a flying-spot, to scan the film. It comprises the flying-spot tube 20, with its scanning circuits 21, a lens 22 which forms the image of the front face of the tube on the film 23 to be analyzed, a condenser 24 which makes the emerging beam practically parallel and a separator three-color optics 25.
  • the separator consists of prisms comprising dichroic or interference mirrors 26, 27 and reflecting mirrors 28, 29 to select the three beams each carrying information contained respectively in the blue, red and green spectral bands. These three beams emerge in parallel and reach a microchannel tube according to FIG. 3 and the detector anode of which consists of four detector quadrants as shown in more detail in FIG. 5 with a special prism separator assembly enabling the beams to be located in three of the quadrants.
  • the separator assembly comprises, along the axis Zl of the condenser 24, an assembly of three prisms 31, 32 and 33.
  • the prism 31 receives the light flux of axis Zl on an inlet face and has a downstream face in contact with a corresponding face of the prism 32 to form, by an appropriate optical treatment, the first dichroic mirror 26.
  • This mirror reflects one of the spectral bands to be filtered, for example red R, in a vertical direction to reach on a reflecting face of a fourth prism 34; this reflecting face corresponds to the mirror 28.
  • the prism 32 has a second contact face this time with the prism 33 to form the second dichroic mirror 27 and reflect the blue spectral band B in a horizontal direction and therefore perpendicular to the previous one, so to be able to dispose laterally a fifth prism 35 which includes the reflecting face 29.
  • the exit faces of the prisms 33, 34 and 35 are coplanar respectively delivering the green light flows V, red R and blue B, along parallel axes. These fluxes are received by the optical fiber entry window of the tube 1 and, taking into account the inversion produced by the electrostatic lens, the corresponding detection is carried out respectively if the qudrants 4-1, 4-2 and 4 -3 of the anode, conjugates of the exit faces of the prisms 34, 33 and 35.
  • the video signals delivered by the detector quadrants are then further amplified in circuits 40-1, 40-2 and 40-3 which deliver the three standard chromatic components R, G, B.
  • the fourth quadrant of the anode is used as follows: one or more optical fibers, such as 36 and 37, have one end disposed upstream of the film, preferably near the image forming object 22. These fibers 36 and 37 thus collect a light energy proportional to that emitted by the spot of the tube 20. The exit ends of the fibers illuminate through the tube 1 the fourth detector quadrant 4-4 which is followed by a similar amplifier 40-4 to those 40-1 to 40-3 of the other routes. The output of this amplifier is applied simultaneously to three analog divider circuits 41-1 to 41-3 interposed respectively on the three channels R, G and B.
  • the terminal signals are given by the ratios:
  • the photodetector and electron multiplier tube with microchannels described above admits several variants conforming to the characteristics set out and which fall within the scope of the present invention.
  • the tube may or may not be equipped with an optical objective (9, Fig.l), may or may not include an electronic optic (Fig. 1 or 2) and in the absence of this the photocathode 2 will be located very close to the microchannel wafer 3.
  • the number and the shape of the detector elements constituting the anode 4 are determined according to the envisaged application, detector with four quadrants as we have seen or any other form, strip for example.

Landscapes

  • Image-Pickup Tubes, Image-Amplification Tubes, And Storage Tubes (AREA)
EP81401754A 1980-11-25 1981-10-30 Tube photodétecteur à multiplication d'électrons utilisable dans un lecteur vidéo couleur Withdrawn EP0053530A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
FR8024968A FR2494906A1 (fr) 1980-11-25 1980-11-25 Tube photodetecteur a multiplication d'electrons utilisable dans un lecteur video couleur
FR8024968 1980-11-25

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0053530A1 true EP0053530A1 (fr) 1982-06-09

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP81401754A Withdrawn EP0053530A1 (fr) 1980-11-25 1981-10-30 Tube photodétecteur à multiplication d'électrons utilisable dans un lecteur vidéo couleur

Country Status (3)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0053530A1 (OSRAM)
FR (1) FR2494906A1 (OSRAM)
MA (1) MA19327A1 (OSRAM)

Cited By (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4724354A (en) * 1986-05-05 1988-02-09 Eol3 Company, Inc. Image intensifier for producing a color image having a color separation filter sequentially passing visible blue light and its second order wavelengths, visible green light and its second order wavelengths, and visible red light
DE10014311A1 (de) * 2000-03-23 2001-10-04 Siemens Ag Strahlungswandler
WO2003032358A1 (en) * 2001-10-09 2003-04-17 Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. Intensified hybrid solid-state sensor
US7015452B2 (en) 2001-10-09 2006-03-21 Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. Intensified hybrid solid-state sensor
EP1659784A1 (de) * 2004-11-19 2006-05-24 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. Filmscanner und ein Scanverfahren zum Unterdrücken von Helligkeitsschwankungen einer Strahlungsquelle

Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB1239243A (OSRAM) * 1968-09-17 1971-07-14
FR2140741A5 (OSRAM) * 1971-06-07 1973-01-19 Labo Electronique Physique
US3783272A (en) * 1972-07-10 1974-01-01 Gte Sylvania Inc Optical-to-electrical transducer assemblage
US3798453A (en) * 1972-08-03 1974-03-19 Univ California Multichannel digital photometer
US3887810A (en) * 1973-01-02 1975-06-03 Texas Instruments Inc Photon-multiplier imaging system
FR2274138A1 (fr) * 1974-06-05 1976-01-02 Rank Organisation Ltd Dispositif de commande d'un tube a rayons cathodiques

Patent Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB1239243A (OSRAM) * 1968-09-17 1971-07-14
FR2140741A5 (OSRAM) * 1971-06-07 1973-01-19 Labo Electronique Physique
US3783272A (en) * 1972-07-10 1974-01-01 Gte Sylvania Inc Optical-to-electrical transducer assemblage
US3798453A (en) * 1972-08-03 1974-03-19 Univ California Multichannel digital photometer
US3887810A (en) * 1973-01-02 1975-06-03 Texas Instruments Inc Photon-multiplier imaging system
FR2274138A1 (fr) * 1974-06-05 1976-01-02 Rank Organisation Ltd Dispositif de commande d'un tube a rayons cathodiques

Cited By (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4724354A (en) * 1986-05-05 1988-02-09 Eol3 Company, Inc. Image intensifier for producing a color image having a color separation filter sequentially passing visible blue light and its second order wavelengths, visible green light and its second order wavelengths, and visible red light
DE10014311A1 (de) * 2000-03-23 2001-10-04 Siemens Ag Strahlungswandler
DE10014311C2 (de) * 2000-03-23 2003-08-14 Siemens Ag Strahlungswandler
US7022994B2 (en) 2000-03-23 2006-04-04 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Radiation converter
WO2003032358A1 (en) * 2001-10-09 2003-04-17 Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. Intensified hybrid solid-state sensor
US6747258B2 (en) 2001-10-09 2004-06-08 Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. Intensified hybrid solid-state sensor with an insulating layer
US7015452B2 (en) 2001-10-09 2006-03-21 Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. Intensified hybrid solid-state sensor
EP1659784A1 (de) * 2004-11-19 2006-05-24 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. Filmscanner und ein Scanverfahren zum Unterdrücken von Helligkeitsschwankungen einer Strahlungsquelle

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
MA19327A1 (fr) 1982-07-01
FR2494906A1 (fr) 1982-05-28
FR2494906B1 (OSRAM) 1983-04-29

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Inventor name: BLAMOUTIER, MICHEL

Inventor name: BEAUVAIS, YVES RENE

Inventor name: REYMOND, JEAN-CLAUDE