MICROCHANNEL PLATE (MCP) DETECTORS WITH CROSS STRIP (XS) READOUTS ARE POWERFUL SENSOR TECHNOLOGIES THAT WHEN MIGRATED TO HIGH TRL CAN SATISFY THE DEMANDS FOR MANY FUTURE NASA MISSIONS. THROUGH PREVIOUS SAT EFFORTS WE HAVE BUILT BOTH OPEN FACE AND SEALED TUBE XS READOUT DETECTORS THAT HAVE HIGH PERFORMANCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ROBUSTNESS. MCPS AND PHOTOCATHODES PROVIDE UV SENSING AND ELECTRONIC SIGNAL AMPLIFICATION WHILE THE XS READOUT ACCOMPLISHES SINGLE PHOTON POSITION ENCODING USING CHARGE CLOUD CENTROIDING. XS READOUTS ALLOW MCP OPERATION AT AMPLIFICATION GAINS MUCH LOWER THAN PRIOR METHODS (FACTORS OF ~20 LESS) REDUCING THE VOLTAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MCPS INCREASING LOCAL AND GLOBAL EVENT RATES AND GREATLY EXTENDING THE SENSOR USABLE LIFETIME. SUCH DETECTORS HAVE DEMONSTRATED HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION (<20 M FWHM) PHOTON COUNTING (NOISELESS) IMAGING IN A ROBUST RADIATION-HARD PACKAGE THAT IS SCALABLE TO VERY LARGE FORMATS (>100 MM > 5K 5K RESELS) WITH FOCAL PLANE CURVATURE MATCHING. THE MCPS ALSO OPERATE AT AMBIENT TEMPERATURES WITH VERY LOW DARK COUNT RATES OF ~0.04 EVENTS/SEC/CM2. THE CURRENT GENERATION OF XS READOUT ELECTRONICS EMPLOY SEPARATE ELECTRONIC MODULES TO PERFORM THE AMPLIFICATION OF THE XS SIGNALS THEIR FAST DIGITIZATION AND FOR SUBSEQUENT FPGA EVENT POSITION ENCODING. WHILE THESE ELECTRONICS CAN MEET THE NEEDS OF FUTURE MISSIONS FOR RESOLUTION AND COUNTING RATES THEY DO NOT MEET THE NEEDS WITH REGARDS TO TOTAL SYSTEM POWER WHEN SCALED TO THE LARGE FORMAT DETECTORS REQUIRED BY LUVOIR OR HABEX OR FOR MISSIONS (CUBESATS ETC.) WHICH HAVE CONSTRAINTS ON THEIR POWER BUDGET. THE PATH FORWARD TO ACHIEVE SUBSTANTIAL POWER REDUCTION IS A READOUT SYSTEM BASED ON A MULTI-CHANNEL APPLICATION SPECIFIC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (ASIC) WHICH COMBINES THE CHARGE AMPLIFICATION AND SIGNAL DIGITIZATION INTO A SINGLE LOW POWER DEVICE. IN A PREVIOUS SAT GRANT WE SUCCESSFULLY DEVELOPED A FIRST VERSION OF THIS DEVICE THE GRAPH ASIC AND PERFORMED SOME INITIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ITS PERFORMANCE. EARLY BENCHTOP AND DETECTOR TEST RESULTS FROM THIS DEVICE ARE ENCOURAGING BUT INCOMPLETE. IN THIS PROJECT WE WILL PARTNER WITH NALU SCIENTIFIC (ASIC DEVELOPMENT EXPERTS WHO WORKED ON THE GRAPH DEVICE). WE PROPOSE TO COMPLETE FULL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CURRENT GRAPH DEVICE AND USE THE INFORMATION LEARNED TO OPTIMIZE THE DESIGN OF THE CHIP. WE ANTICIPATE A FOUNDRY RUN ON A NEXT GENERATION DEVICE (GRAPH2) WHICH WE WOULD THEN FULLY CHARACTERIZE. THE NEXT STEP IS DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOM ELECTRONICS BOARDS FOR THE GRAPH2 DEVICE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF FPGA FIRMWARE TO PROCESS THE DATA FROM THE GRAPH2 DEVICE TO PRODUCE PHOTON POSITION DATA. SUBSEQUENT EFFORT WOULD THEN BE TO INTEGRATE THIS WITH EXISTING XS MCP DETECTORS BOTH OPEN FACE AND SEALED TUBE TO OPTIMIZE PERFORMANCE AND FINALLY PERFORM ENVIRONMENTAL TESTS TO QUALIFY THE XS SYSTEM AND ELEVATE ITS TRL TO READINESS FOR FLIGHT PROGRAMS. LARGE AREA MCP DETECTORS ARE PART OF THE BASELINE PLAN FOR UV INSTRUMENTS ON TWO OF THE LARGE MISSION CONCEPTS BEING CONSIDERED IN THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY (ASTRO2020). THE LARGE ULTRAVIOLET/OPTICAL/INFRARED SURVEYOR (LUVOIR) ULTRAVIOLET MULTI-OBJECT SPECTROGRAPH (LUMOS) AND THE ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROGRAPH ON THE HABITABLE EXOPLANET OBSERVATORY (HABEX-UVS) WILL PROVIDE IMPROVEMENTS IN HIGH SENSITIVITY SPECTROSCOPY ASTROMETRY ANGULAR RESOLUTION AND WAVELENGTH COVERAGE. TO ACHIEVE THEIR SCIENCE GOALS BOTH MISSIONS WILL REQUIRE LARGE RADIATION HARD UV DETECTORS (>100 100 MM2) WITH 20 M RESOLUTION ELEMENTS HIGH QUANTUM EFFICIENCY > 5 MHZ GLOBAL RATE CAPABILITY ~100 HZ MAXIMUM LOCAL RATES AND VERY LOW IN-SITU DETECTOR BACKGROUND RATES. FURTHERMORE A VARIETY OF POTENTIAL EXPLORER AND PROBE (E.G. COSMIC EVOLUTION THROUGH UV SPECTROSCOPY - CETUS) CLASS MISSIONS WOULD HAVE THEIR SCIENCE ENABLED AND POTENTIALLY GREATLY ENHANCED BY THE AVAILABILITY OF ADVANCED XS DETECTORS.

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