Microchannel-plate Tube Research Articles

Development of scalable electronics for the TORCH time-of-flight detector

The TORCH detector is proposed for the low-momentum particle identification upgrade of the LHCb experiment. It combines Time-Of-Flight and Cherenkov techniques to achieve charged particle separation up to 10 GeV/c. This requires a time resolution of 70 ps for single photons. Existing electronics has already demonstrated a 26 ps intrinsic time resolution; however the channel count and density need improvements for future micro-channel plate devices. This paper will report on a scalable design using custom ASICs (NINO-32 and HPTDC). The system provides up to 8 × 64 channels for a single micro-channel plate device. It is also designed to read out micro-channel plate tubes with charge-sharing technique.

Performance and lifetime of micro-channel plate tubes for the TORCH detector

Timing Of internally Reflected CHerenkov photons (TORCH) is a time-of-flight detector proposed for particle identification at low momentum. Charged particles passing through a plane of quartz produce Cherenkov light, some of which is trapped within the plane by total internal reflection and then emerges at the edges. There the photons are focused onto micro-channel plate photon detectors that register their position and arrival time. This allows reconstructing the photon trajectories in quartz and determining the particle crossing time. Commercial micro-channel plate tubes can achieve the required timing resolution, but their anode spatial segmentation is too coarse, at least in one dimension. In addition, these devices must survive a number of years in a high occupancy environment. Micro-channel plate tubes specifically dedicated to the TORCH are currently being designed, constructed and prototyped in collaboration with industry. In the present paper, results from commercial and dedicated devices are reported.

Testing micro-channel plate detectors for the particle identification upgrade of LHCb

The TORCH, Time of internally Reflected Cherenkov Light, is proposed for the high luminosity upgrade of the LHCb experiment. The detector combines Time-of-Flight and Cherenkov techniques to achieve positive π/K/p separation on a ≥3σ level in the momentum range below 10GeV/c. The required time resolution is ≤50ps for single photon signal.In a preliminary R&D phase, we have shown that already commercially available micro-channel plate tubes with 8×8 channels fulfil the requirements. Timing properties of the tubes have been investigated with a pulsed laser diode in single photon regime. Key results from these laboratory tests are reported. An excellent timing resolution of <40ps is achieved with an efficiency of ∼90%.

R & D status for the LHCb TORCH project

The TORCH detector is proposed for the low-momentum particle identification upgrade of the LHCb experiment. It combines time-of-flight and Cherenkov techniques to achieve positive π/K/p separation up to 10GeV/c. This requires a timing resolution ⩽70ps for single photons. The present paper reports on the status of a preliminary R&D using commercially-available micro-channel plate tubes and readout electronics based on existing front-end chips.

Automatic optical inspection of plated through-holes for ultrahigh density printed wiring boards

An automatic optical through-hole inspection system for ultrahigh density printed wiring boards (PWBs) using leakage light detection has been developed. To detect the dim leakage light emitted from the through-hole defect, we enhanced the sensitivity of the light detector 150 times using a microchannel plate tube. However, the tube caused two problems: stray light sensing and image distortion. To solve these problems, we optically isolated the sensing optics and developed a distortion correction method. We have developed a prototype system that can detect a defect as small as 100 μm.