LAMBDA Detector—An Example of a State-of-the-Art Photon Counting Imaging System

At the heart of the LAMBDA detector is the Medipix3 chip. This application specific integrated circuit ASIC was developed by an international collaboration of more than 20 institutes based at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN). Each chip has 256 × 256 pixels of 55 µm size and can work with signals of either polarity, allowing it to be used with the most common types of silicon and high-Z sensors. The Medipix3 ASIC works using the photon counting principle that is also found in other ASICs like the Pilatus or XPAD chips. Ever since the first prototypes of the LAMBDA camera have been developed, it has been used in a range of applications. LAMBDA has been demonstrated in a range of synchrotron x-ray experiments such as coherent imaging and x-ray diffraction. This chapter also describes the work done with Medipix3RX.