Is there a concept book that describes the micro-channel tube and how it
works?

Don Black.

On 07-Apr-13 5:23 AM, Craig Sawyers wrote:

Then there is the internal 7104 readout display.

Why does this not burn-out MCP?

It does. That is why the readout intensity knob has an off position, and a
pulsed mode that operates in several ways depending on a range of
settings.
If you leave it operating continuously it will absolutely reduce the
sensitivity of the MCP at the readout positions. I have some images in the
pics section of Tekscopes that show an image of a single shot trace at
200ps/div from a TD pulser. Those were taken with a Tek C1002 CCD camera.
The slight graininess of the trace is due to the granular nature of
individual electrons striking the MCP before amplification. It is a
helluva
tour de force of analogue scope engineering to do this.

Craig