Abstract: A preferred method for transmission electron microscopy includes a step of generating a microscopy signal. The microscopy signal is then detected with an active pixel detector that includes a plurality of pixels. Each of the pixels includes at least one photodiode. Each pixel integrates an incident signal over a collection time period. Using a massively parallel on chip analog to digital conversion, very fast read out times can be achieved, e.g., many frames per second. In a preferred embodiment, the read out time permits there to be a single electron event recorded per pixel, indicating either a single electron or the lack thereof. This permits simple accumulation of the pixel counts for each pixel in read-out and storage electronics.

Abstract: A preferred method for transmission electron microscopy includes a step of generating a microscopy signal. The microscopy signal is then detected with an active pixel detector that includes a plurality of pixels. Each of the pixels includes at least one photodiode. Each pixel integrates an incident signal over a collection time period. Using a massibel parallel on chip analog to digital conversion, very fast read out times can be achieved, e.g., many frames per second. In a preferred embodiment, the read out time permits there to be a single electron event recorded per pixel, indicating either a single electron or the lack thereof. This permits simple accumulation of the pixel counts for each pixel in read-out and storage electronics.

Abstract: Stale data is detected in a shift register containing time characters representing event occurrence times, expressed in timing data counts of a cyclic counter, by comparing the most significant bit of each stored time character with a value based on the most significant bits of a current timing data count. A stale stored time character is disposed of by setting its associated validity flag, which indicates that the time character is not to be read out of the shift register.