Detectors and Electronics

Full course description

The James Webb Space Telescope, a cell phone’s camera, an FMRI instrument, an electron microscope, and an imaging mass spectrometer are all imaging devices that take pictures that can provide us data to better make decisions. Although there are many differences between these devices, all of them employ a source, the illumination of a sample, and record a signal from that illumination using a detector and electronics.

Understanding how Detectors and Electronics work will empower you to design and adapt detectors and electronics to solve problems. Moreover, understanding how digital data is acquired, and possibly altered by electronics, will empower you to avoid common pitfalls in interpreting and processing your data.

This course will help you develop basic electronic skills such as operating oscilloscopes, designing measurement setups, and good circuit design practices. Additionally, you will combine these practical skills with in-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of advanced electronics and signal acquisition. This course will also help you understand the electrical and chemical basis for imaging detectors such as MAPS, CMOS, hybrid-pixel detectors, conversion dynodes, and other camera systems. As not only the capturing instrumentation but also digital processing limit the quality of data, including images, this course will cover introductory signal processing material.

By the end of this course, you will have a solid foundation in understanding both the creation and application of Detectors and Electronics, which is essential for research in fields such as digital signal processing and instrument development. The skills and competencies you develop in this course range much further, however. By understanding the principles and electrical components in imaging systems, you will develop a deeper understanding of all imaging systems, from cameras to imaging mass spectrometers. This course will improve your ability to work with all imaging systems — from using your cell phone camera to fixing an electron microscope — by enabling you to more rapidly troubleshoot data acquisition or electrical problems and to better optimize your imaging experiments.