Stacked orthogonal serpentine delay lines with vias for two-dimensional microchannel plate readout

We demonstrate a multilayer circuit board that has two orthogonal serpentine delay lines on different layers to read out event positions from a microchannel plate (MCP). The top serpentine is directly bombarded by the MCP. The orthogonal buried serpentine receives its charge through thousands of vias that connect to the top surface. Event X and Y positions are decoded with a timing circuit for each axis. The spatial resolution is much finer than the via spacing because every event’s charge footprint spans several vias, and because the timing circuit senses the centroid of the event’s position on each delay line. This construction method eliminates fabrication problems encountered in previous multilayer designs and eliminates the need for crossed conducting fingers with their concomitant degradation of the otherwise excellent phase delay characteristic of serpentine delay lines. Performance data are presented for an anode of this new type. Formulas and graphs are given to assist in creating a variety of anodes of this type.