Multiple-radiation detector particularly for X-rays with two energy levels

Claim 2

A multiple-radiation detector, comprising: a single scintillator which, in response to the reception of a determined number N of radiations corresponding to different energy levels, emits a same number N of radiations with different wavelengths; a filtering device which makes a spatial selection of said N radiations emitted by the scintillator, and a photosensitive device which receives the N spatially arranged radiations and gives at least N electrical signals representing intensities of said N spatially arranged radiations.

Claim 3

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 1 further comprising a charge transfer device which receives the electrical signals given by the photosensitive device.

Claim 4

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the scintillator comprises a mixture of N luminescent materials, each material being sensitive to only one of the N incident radiations and each emitting in a different wavelength.

Claim 5

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the photosensitive device consists of several photosensitive cells which are arranged in groups of N cells, each cell of a group being assigned to the detection of one of the N radiations emitted by the scintillator.

Claim 6

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the filtering device consists of several elementary filtering cells arranged in groups of N, each elementary filtering cell being designed to transmit only one of the N radiations emitted by the scintillator.

Claim 7

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 5 wherein each elementary filtering cell of a group is associated with a photosensitive cell of one and the same group of photosensitive cells, so that a photosensitive cell of a group receives only one of the N radiations emitted by the scintillator.

Claim 8

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 4, wherein the photosensitive cells of a group are each connected to a cell of a charge transfer device associated with this group so as to be able to process, in parallel, the signals corresponding to one and the same radiation.

Claim 9

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 6 wherein the photosensitive cells are photodiodes placed side by side and wherein the N photodiodes of a group have a total reception area of N radiations equal to that of the smallest area to be examined.

Claim 10

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 8 wherein the filtering cells are materials of appropriate color deposited on each of the reception surfaces of said photodiodes.

Claim 11

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 9 wherein the mixture forming the scintillator is deposited on the filtering cell.

Claim 12

A multiple-radiation detector according to claim 10, comprising a double-energy X-ray detector with two luminescent material in said single scintillator wherein one of the two luminescent materials is for the high-energy radiation and comprises of radmium tungstate or terbium-doped gadolinium oxysulphide or, again, calcium tungstate and, wherein the other luminescent material for the low-energy radiations and comprises one of terbium-activated lanthanum oxysulphide or yttrium oxysulphide or europium-activated yttrium oxysulphides or oxides or, again, zinc sulphides, the components of a pair being chosen so that their luminescent emissions are different so that they can be separated spatially by said filtering device.