Resolution of electrostatic storage targets

In the class of electrostatic storage devices, which includes image orthicons, vidicons and certain signal recorders, a reading electron beam senses the potential distribution rather than the written charge distribution on a target. The transformation of a charge pattern into a potential pattern on a dielectric surface can be considered an imaging process. In this paper the theoretical aperture response and equivalent pass band of a general electrostatic storage target are derived. Target resolution is shown to depend upon the thicknesses of the dielectric layers. Specific applications of the analysis are also presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of experimental results.