A microchannel plate detector based on a direct-collection cross-delay-line (XDL) anode readout is proposed. By converting spatial information into temporal signals and processing them with a high-speed time-to-digital converter, the system achieves a balance between high spatial resolution and high counting rate. The article elaborates on the detector's design principles, image encoding system, and signal processing workflow. Experimental evaluations were conducted on key performance metrics, including the XDL encoding system's nonlinearity, timing accuracy, as well as the overall spatial resolution and maximum counting rate of the detector. Test results demonstrate that the detector exhibits a spatial resolution better than 70 μm, a maximum counting rate of 1 MHz, and excellent timing precision (single-channel accuracy <26 ps). The encoding system exhibits good linearity with differential nonlinearity and integral nonlinearity below 0.22 and 2.29 LSB (least significant bit). The system is suitable for applications requiring high spatiotemporal resolution, such as particle detection, beam diagnostics, ultraviolet astronomy, and radiation imaging. Future work will focus on upgrading the data transmission interface and optimizing the electronic design to further enhance system performance.
Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.