PHOTO-ARRAY LAYOUT FOR MONITORING IMAGE STATISTICS

An imaging apparatus including a photo sensor array having an array of sensors is disclosed, each sensor having an active area and a support hardware area adjoining the active area. In the prior art, the support hardware area of each sensor adjoins the active area of the sensor in the same direction. In the present invention, a sensor array has an array of sensors where, for each sensor, the support hardware area adjoins the active area of the sensor in a direction that is radially away from center of the sensor array whereby at least one freed area is defined within the sensor array. One or more reference detectors can be fabricated in the freed areas. This design allows the imaging apparatus to gather better image statistics, overcome shortcomings of the prior art design, or both.