Microchannel Plates Manufacturing and Operation

Microchannel Plates Manufacturing and Operation - request a quote at [e-mail]
A Microchannel Plate begins as a glass tube fitted with a solid, acid-etchable core and drawn via fiberoptic techniques to form single fibers. A number of these fibers are then stacked in a hexagonal array; the entire assembly is drawn again to form multi-fibers. The multi-fibers are then stacked together and fused at high temperature to form a boule.
The boule is sliced on a wafer saw to the required bias angle, edged to size, and then ground and polished to an optical finish. The individual slices are chemically processed to remove the solid core material, leaving a "honeycomb" structure of millions of tiny holes.
Through subsequent processing, this glass wafer is given its conductive and secondary emissive properties. Finally, a thin metal electrode (usually Inconel, Nichrome or chromium) is vacuum-deposited on both input and output surfaces of the wafer to electrically connect all the channels in parallel.
Microchannel Plates
MCP is a specially fabricated plate that amplifies electron signal similar to secondary electron multiplier (SEM). Unlike SEM, MCP has several million independent channels and each channel works as independent electron multiplier. In other words, one can imagine MCP as an assembly of millions miniature SEMs. MCP consists of a two-dimensional periodic array of very-small diameter glass capillaries (channels) fused together and sliced in a thin plate. A single incident particle (ion, electron, photon etc.) enters a channel and emits an electron from the channel wall. Secondary electrons are accelerated by an electric field developed by a voltage applied across the both ends of the MCP. They travel along their parabolic trajectories until they in turn strike the channel surface, thus producing more secondary electrons. This process is repeated many times along the channel; as a result, this cascade process yields a cloud of several thousand electrons, which emerge from the rear of the plate. If two or more MCPs are operated in series, a single input event will generate a pulse of 108 or more electrons at the output.
How microchannel plate works
Since the individual channels confine the pulse, the spatial pattern of electron pulses at the rear of the plate preserve the pattern (image) particles incident on the front surface. The output signals are typically collected in any of several ways, including metal or multimetal anodes, resistive anode (one- or two- dimensional), wedge and strip anode, Delay-Line Readout or on a phosphor screen deposited on a fiberoptic or other substrate.
Microchannel Plates have a combination of unique properties like high gain, high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution. They can be used in a large variety of applications including, imaging spectroscopy, electron spectroscopy and microscopy, mass spectrometry, astronomy, molecular and atomic collision studies, cluster physics etc. Most of these applications require only some of MCP properties, for example Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry require high temporal resolution of MCPs, imaging of single atoms in field ion microscopes or X-ray imaging of the Sun require mainly spatial resolution. Particle analyzers may be produced by using a MCP detector at the output of a electrostatic and/or magnetic dispersion system. Very high sensitivity optical, UV and EUV and X-ray spectrometers can also be produced with appropriate filtering and dispersive elements. The same microchannel plate technology is used to make visible light image intensifiers for night vision goggles and binoculars.
Detectors based on Microchannel Plates have variety of designs depending on the type of particles detected, throughput (counts/second), time and position resolution, imaging area, linearity and sensitivity, signal to noise ratio and other requirements. It's a challenge to detector developer to optimize detector design for particular application.

[@cambodianriverpig7613]

I want to build my own thermal imagine device (white hot) for hunting. Are microchannel plates expensive? Also, how durable are they?

[@senator7352]

youd want to look at a microbolometer

[@cambodianriverpig7613]

@@senator7352 is there a website that shows a step by step guide on how to build a white hot thermal imaging device?

[@wladislawshamin5447]

i dont know where to buy them. I pbarely found a photocathode. Did you find some?

[@MoreSombreros]

where did you get the photocathode?@@wladislawshamin5447

[@typhoys]

White hot is only available in thermal vision,
Microchannel is used for image intensifiers

[@delmarphotonics]

I used MCPs a lot during my research
Sergey Egorov Google Scholar
scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=cTh3Dl4AAAAJ

[@osmacar5331]

the information you have given with this vid is quite crucial for my pursuits. i thank you for it. though inference is needed and am mildly irked by that cause i have to put effort in and am lazy. i mean efficient.
jokes aside. thank you greatly for this information. when i get to tinkering with tech i'll be thanking you for any NVD strides i make.