A new viewing theory on centroid finding for patterned position sensitive detectors (PPSD)

A study of a new viewing theory (surface viewing theory) on position sensing is described. The viewing that the infinite height cathode strips is based on it (linear viewing theory), limits the width of the readout channel to a severe narrow strip. Therefore, the number of channels for long length position sensing increases. The surface viewing theory, removes this limitation by shortening the heights and broadening the widths of the readout channels (cathode strips). In the surface viewing theory since the surface of the affected area is used for position determination, it is possible to broader sensing area comparing with the cathode strip, Preliminary designs and experiments show that the optimum sensing area (OPSA) based on the surface viewing theory decreases at least 10 times in number of the readout channels without any degradation in linearity comparing with the single cathode strip. Increasing the signal to noise ratio in sake of a better resolution is possible with vertical cascading of the OPSA. Two type combinations of the OPSA result in extended OPSAs that correspond to suitable patterns long length position sensitive detectors.