Development of a camera tube for night viewing having high-gain preamplifier stage of the electron-bombardment-induced-conductivity type

Devlopment work on a camera tube for night viewing which makes use of a thin-film high-gain target of the electron-bombardment, induced, conductivity (EBIC) type is described. Theoretical performance of the tube relative to the image-orthicon tube, the intensifier orthicon, and the storage orthicon, is discussed. A comparison is made between the theoretical performance of these tubes and the performance expected of an ideal amplifier tube which is limited by fluctuations in the signal current leaving the photocathode. Design Of the EBIC camera tube consisting of a high-voltage electrostatic image section having variable minification of the focused image, an EBIC target, and a return-beam electron multiplier is described. Characteristics of the target material are presented, thermal limitations are discussed, and techniques for protecting the target during exhaust are described. Experimental performance of state-of-the-art EBIC tubes with return-beam multipliers is compared with the performance of other sensitive camera tubes.