Abstract
Many space applications of photon counting detectors (PCDs) are particularly challenging due to the requirements for high local and global count rates and for sensitivity down to the soft x ray region. The count rates per pixel required may be as high as several hundred counts/second and overall count rates as high as 1,000,000 counts/second. At the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) we have been developing a range of modular detector systems in the visible and UV which are built specifically with solar UV observing in mind. The high resolution/high count rate imaging performed pushes the technology to the limit and shows up, in some detail, problems in intensifier and microchannel plate (MCP) manufacture. Close cooperation with the manufacturers of the intensifiers used, Photok Ltd., has led to improvements in the intensifier design. In the following paper the performance of these detectors is discussed in detail along with plans for their future development.
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