Cross strip imaging anodes for microchannel plate detectors

We have developed a novel microchannel plate readout scheme, the cross stri p anode. The cross strip anode has a coarse (0.5 mm) multilayer metal and c eramic cross strip pattern that encodes event positions by direct sensing o f the charge on each strip and subsequent determination of the charge cloud centroid for each event. Event position encoding is accomplished with chip level preamplifiers on the anode, subsequent analog-to-digital conversion of individual strip charge values, and a software centroid determination. W e find that the spatial resolution (<7 mum) is sufficient to resolve 12-mum microchannel plate pores. The cross strip anode can achieve this resolutio n while using low microchannel plate gain (approximate to5 x 10(6)), thus i ncreasing the local counting rate capacity and overall lifetime of the micr ochannel plate detector system. The image linearity is good enough (<5 mum) to enable distortions in the microchannel plate hexagonal multifiber bound aries to be seen. We also discuss plans for custom chip electronics develop ment so that encoding may be accomplished at photon counting rates >1 MHz a nd with low-power consumption (similar to 2W) that is suitable for applicat ions in space astrophysics.