The microchannel image intensifier

It is noted that in the past 25 years several advances in glassworking technology have made it possible to assemble millions of microscopic amolifiers into a geometric array. Each amplifier in the array is a tube or channel approximately 15 microns in diameter that can brighten a small, well-defined portion of the scene. Thus the entire array of amplifiers, operating simultaneously and in parallel, functions as an image intensifier, making faint images brighter without destroying the spatial information of the input signal. An array of this type is called a microchannel plate. The principles underlying the operation of a microchannel plate are discussed. Attention is given to the plate's usefulness in astronomy.