Development of Advanced Technologies for Fabrication of Microchannel Plates (MCPs)

"This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project aims to develop novel micromachined/microfabricated (mf) silicon based microchannel plate electron amplifiers for use in image intensification. The proposed channel plate structures are made feasibleby NanoSciences high rate silicon etching process which enables a cost effective approach. Advances in MCP technology based on silicon micromachining techniques offer the opportunity for previously unreachable performance in image intensificationapplications, to the extent that a new generation of devices would be spawned. These performance improvements would be under all light conditions with improved visual fidelity (MTF), as well as bright light conditions by halo mitigation and at low lightconditions by improvement in SNR. Devices based on this technology such as NVG, ICCD, and other sensors based on electron amplification would benefit. The Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of the microfabricated Si-mf-MCP. Phase II programwill focus on fabrication, test and evaluation of prototype Si-mf-MCP?s in Gen 4 intensifiers. The major commercial applications for these new Si-mf-MCP?s will be in lower cost image intensifiers for law enforcement, security applications, visual aids fornight blindness as well as biomedical instrumentation for imaging applications such as gene sequencing, protein analysis, and medical instrumentation such as replacements for photomultiplier t