HIGH-RESOLUTION DELAY-LINE READOUTS FOR ASTRONOMICAL SPECTROSCOPY

We describe the operation and characteristics of two dimensional planar delay line image readout schemes for microchannel plate detectors. Spatial resolutions of almost-equal-to 20-mu-m FWHM in X and almost-equal-to 45-mu-m FWHM in Y have been achieved with anode formats of 95mm x 15mm. The image non-linearity is less than 3 resolution elements, and the images are stabile to a few microns under various operating conditions. The flat field response is stable and correctable to the limit of detection statistics.