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Completed TRL 6 (started at 3, targeting 6)
Effective counting rates of ~1 GHz are achieveable from microchannel plates (MCPs) through modulation of the input particle flux and integration of the total output charge instead of counting discrete charge clouds. In FY19, we propose to leverage charge-integration-based counting for the development of the next generation of fast plasma sensors. We plan to modulate the MCP detector stack response to achieve an electronically adjustable detection system dynamic range.
The successful demonstration of the proposed techniques has direct and immediate applications to instrument concept development. Preventing an MCP from saturating would result in significantly improved performance of existing heritage detection systems.
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