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Digicon
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<h2 id="development">Development</h2> <p>In 1971, E.A. Beaver and Carl McIlwain successfully demonstrated a way in which silicon diodes can be used in digital tube by placing a silicon diode array that contained 38 elements in the same chamber as a photocathode.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> The design and manufacture of the Digicon tube is attributed to John Choisser of the Electronic Vision Corporation.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p><p>Digicon detectors were used on the original instruments for the <a href="/facts/Hubble_Space_Telescope/NQeIf0vw">Hubble Space Telescope</a>, but are very rarely used in new designs, where <a href="/facts/CMOS/NJIWYgBl">CMOS</a> active-pixel detectors can achieve the same performance without the need for large electric fields or complicated vacuum assemblies. For instance, there were two pulse-counting Digicon detectors in the <a href="/facts/Goddard_High_Resolution_Spectrograph/xtAH1sR5">Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph</a> installed on the Hubble Space Telescope from 1990–1997, used to record ultraviolet spectra.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Digicon is also used in digital imaging such as the case of a scanning gage using Digicon imaging tube, which generates a two-dimensional view with high spatial resolution when an object is scanned past the Digicon.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"The Digicon Detectors". www.stsci.edu. <a href="http://www.stsci.edu/instrument-news/handbooks/ghrs/GHRS_35.html" target="_blank">http://www.stsci.edu/instrument-news/handbooks/ghrs/GHRS_35.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Meaburn, J. (2012). Detection and Spectrometry of Faint Light. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, B.V. p. 36. ISBN 9789027711984. <a href="9789027711984" target="_blank">9789027711984</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Meaburn, J. (2012). Detection and Spectrometry of Faint Light. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, B.V. p. 36. ISBN 9789027711984. <a href="9789027711984" target="_blank">9789027711984</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Morgan, B.L.; Airey, R.W.; McMullan, D. (1976). Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics. London: Academic Press. p. 761. ISBN 0120145545. <a href="0120145545" target="_blank">0120145545</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Böhme, S.; Esser, U.; Hefele, H.; Heinrich, I.; Hofmann, W.; Krahn, D.; Matas, V. R.; Schmadel, L. D.; Zech, G. (2013). Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts: Volume 42 Literature 1986. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 186. ISBN 978-3-662-12382-9. <a href="978-3-662-12382-9" target="_blank">978-3-662-12382-9</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Berger, Harold (1976). Practical Applications of Neutron Radiography and Gaging. Philadelphia, PA: ASTM International. p. 72. ISBN 0803105355. <a href="0803105355" target="_blank">0803105355</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>