A useful technique for detecting very faint light is photon counting technology, which has numerous potential applications in high-energy physics, astronomical detection, quantum key distribution systems, and high-resolution spectral measurement. The micro-channel plate based single-photon counting detector benefits from being small and compact in design. While counting photons, it can precisely record the arrival time and location information by combining with the position-sensitive anode. The detector based on microchannel plate and position-sensitive anode has high sensitivity and time and space discrimination ability, and has been widely used in various fields.Firstly, we investigated position-sensitive anodes for imaging, there are many position-sensitive anodes for imaging. Among which the spatial resolution of WSA anodes decreases gradually with the increase of detection area; the electronics design of MAMA anodes becomes more complex as the detection area increases; each strip of XS anode requires an independent readout electronics, resulting in higher circuit power consumption; the spatial resolution of delay line anodes is much better than that of other kinds of position-sensitive anodes because it is not impacted by the detecting area. Therefore, a novel two-dimensional cross delay line anode based on a printed circuit board was proposed after the delay line anode single photon detector's operating principle was examined. The anode adopts a multi-layer structure design, from top to bottom including an upper collection unit, a reference ground, a lower collection unit, a reference ground, a collection unit and a delay unit through the via connection to achieve signal transmission. Compared to traditional anode designs, this design places the delay unit on the back of the collection unit, making it more miniaturized.Secondly, the high resistance sensor layer was replaced of an anode to capture electrons based on the charge induction readout technology. Due to the characteristics of high resistance of sensor layer, when the electron cloud reaches the charge induction layer, it takes a certain time to diffuse to the ground, so an equal amount of induced charge is generated on the other side, and the position-sensitive anode senses the induced charge and performs analytical imaging on it. Compared with the traditional direct collection method, the direct collection is easy to cause the redistribution of secondary electrons on the anode, resulting in the instability of the output image. Charge induction technology effectively avoids these problems and eliminates the influence of non-uniform electron field on electron motion, it provides convenience for the development of vacuum package detector, which not only reduces the difficulty of device manufacturing, but also facilitates testing.Finally, a set of experimental system is used to test the delay line anode, the developed signal readout circuit mainly includes time digital conversion circuit and photon arrival timing circuit, and imaging is realized by signal discrimination and photon arrival timing circuit. According to the test results, the detector's ideal spatial resolution is 107 $\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{m}$ and its ideal dark count is 0.23 $\mathrm{c}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{u}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}/$(cm²·s). The innovative cross delay line anode has created the groundwork for single photon image detection in large area arrays, it provides theoretical guidance for further performance improvement.