A broad-application microchannel-plate detector system for advanced particle or photon detection tasks:: large area imaging, precise multi-hit timing information and high detection rate

New applications for single particle and photon detection in many fields require both large area imaging performance and precise time information on each detected particle, Moreover, a very high data acquisition rate is desirable for most applications and eventually the detection and imaging of more than one particle arriving within a microsecond is required. Commercial CCD systems lack the timing information whereas other electronic microchannel plate (MCP) read-out schemes usually suffer from a low acquisition rate and complicated and sometimes costly read-out electronics. We have designed and tested a complete imaging system consisting of an MCP position readout with helical wire delay-lines, single-unit amplifier box and PC-controlled time-to-digital converter (TDC) readout. The system is very flexible and can detect and analyse position and timing information at single particle rates beyond 1 MHz. Alternatively, multi-hit events can be collected and analysed at about 20kHz rate. We discuss the advantages and applications of this technique and then focus on the detector's ability to detect and analyse multiple hits. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.