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Pick-up tubes
An image pick-up tube with a
photoconductive layer which acts as the
photosensitive surface.
Converts its light input to corresponding
electrical variations for the video signal.
The camera tube is to video as the
microphone is to audio.

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1. PHOTOEMISSION

2. PHOTOCONDUCTION

Liberation of electrons
from a material under the
influence of illumination

Changes of conductivity of a
surface due to illumination

3. PHOTOVOLTAIC ACTION
Generation of voltage due to
chemical or physical changes
induced by illumination

METHODS OF PRODUCING AN IMAGE WITHIN

THE TUBE

2. SPECTRAL RESPONSE

1. LIGHT TRANSFER
CAPABILITY
Ratio of brightness variations
in the reproduced image to
the brightness variations in
the original scene

Same as the eye; colors are

rendered in their proper
tones

3. SENSITIVITY

Unit: Lumen; output photosignal

per incident illumination

CHARACTERISTICS OF CAMERA TUBES

4. DARK CURRENT
Small amount of signal
current flowing in the
output circuit even in the
absence of illumination on
the faceplate of the tube.
6. RESOLVING POWER

5. LAG CHARACTERISTIC
Inability of the photosensitive
layer in the pick up tube to
follow faster changes in
illumination.

Resolution power

CHARACTERISTICS OF CAMERA TUBES

In a camera tube pickup device, the front of the tube

contains a layer of photosensitive material called a
target.
The lens of a camera
focuses light from a
scene onto the front of
the camera tube, and
this light causes
changes in the target
material.
The light image is transformed into an electronic image,
which can then be read from the back of the target by a
beam of electrons.

HOW CAMERA TUBES WORK

The beam of electrons is produced by an electron gun at

the back of the camera tube.
Whenever the electron beam hits the bright parts
of the electronic image on the target material, the
tube emits a high voltage, and when the beam hits
a dark part of the image, the tube emits a low
voltage.
The beam is controlled by a system of
electromagnets that make the beam
systematically scan the target material.
This varying voltage is the electronic television signal.

HOW CAMERA TUBES WORK

Nipkow Disk
Image Dissector
Iconoscope
Image Orthicon
Flying Spot Scanner

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Vidicon

Plumbicon
Saticon
Silicon Vidicon
Chalnicon
Newvicon
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Also known as Scanning Disk

Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow (22
August 1860 24 August 1940)
In 1884, Nipkow Disk was
designed.

Fundamental component
in mechanical television through the
1920s.

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A mechanically spinning disk of any

suitable material (metal, plastic,
cardboard, etc.)

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With a series of equally

distanced circular holes of
equal diameter.
The holes may also be square
for greater precision.
Holes are positioned to form a
single-turn spiral (external radial
point - center of the disk)

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Image sensor can be as simple as a

single photocell or photodiode.
Maximum number of scan lines is much
more limited.

Images are typically very small.

Devices using them were also noisy, heavy
and picture quality was very low, with a lot
of flickering.

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also called a dissector tube,

is video camera tube in

which photocathode emissions create an
"electron image" which is then scanned
to produce an electrical signal
representing the visual image.
It is relatively insensitive, but it is
useful where a scene is brilliantly
illuminated.
The image dissector is useful only
where scene illumination exceeds
200 foot-lamberts.

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Max Dieckmann

Rudolf Hell

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American television pioneer.

Electron Multipliers (January 7,
1927) - a device that increased the
number of electrons.
Multipactor (March 3, 1930) could amplify a signal to the 60th
power or better .
August 25, 1934- the world's first
public demonstration of a complete,
all-electronic television system.

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Caesium oxide
Electrostatic deflecting
plates

Anode
Electron multiplier
Visual Image

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Diamond Power Specialty Co. of

Lancaster, Ohio.
Monitor boilers in power plants.
The camera has its own countdown sync generator, with both
video and RF output.
Water gauge

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A modern version of the electric eye.

no "charge storage" characteristic.

It is a vacuum device with a photosensitive surface.

The resolution of it is high, fully
adequate for television.

Highly sensitive image storage device

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RCA manufactured several types of

Iconoscopes (types 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849,
1850, 1850A, and 5527).

The 1846 and 1848 (introduced in 1940)

were about 4 1/2 inches diameter, had an octal
(8-pin) base with a metal shell.
The 1849 and 1850 (both introduced in
1939) for film-to-video applications.

1850A (introduced in 1945) were about 6 1/2

inches in diameter.
The 5527 (introduced in 1947) had a 2 inch
diameter tubular bulb

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Sanford Essig (1931) - The first

practical iconoscope was constructed.
Tedham and McGee (1932) - under
the supervision of Isaac Shoenberg
Emitron - a 405-line
broadcasting service employing the
emitron began at studios
in Alexandra Palace.

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Lubszynski , Rodda, and MacGee

(1934) - the british team formed by
engineers developed the super-emitron
(or super-iconoscope)
super-emitron- this new device
is between ten and fifteen times
more sensible than the original
emitron and iconoscope.

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The optical image is focused onto the target

The target is scanned

Electron beam two sets of deflection coils

Signal plate- very thin sheet of mica
Mosaic- silver elements
The bright regions of the image
Electron beam repeatedly scans

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Application:
To television it replaces
mechanical scanning equipment
and several stages of
amplification.

The whole system is entirely

electrical.
Act as an electric eye

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A television camera tube in which

electrons, emitted from a photo
emissive surface in proportion to the
intensity of the incident light, are
focused onto the target causing
secondary emission of electrons.

Developed by the RCA Corporation in

the early 1940s
It changes light from the scene being
televised into electronic signals.

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An image orthicon consists of three parts:

photocathode
electron gun
multistage electron multiplier

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RCA IMAGE ORTHICON

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RCA 3" Image Orthicon 5820

First usable Image Orthicon produced

by RCA's Rose, Law and Weimer in 1945

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Flying spot scanner

A form of television pickup
device, used to record images
from film transparencies, either
still or motion-picture.
implemented by DuMont
Laboratories in 1956.

1920s.

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P
A
R
T
S

Cathode Ray Tube

Photo beam
Dichronic Mirrors
Red- Green- Blue sensitive photo
multipliers

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is a video camera tube

design in which the target
material is a photoconductor.

developed in the 1950s at

RCA by P. K. Weimer, S. V.
Forgue and R. R. Goodrich

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is a storage-type camera tube in which a charge-density

pattern is formed by the imaged scene radiation on a
photoconductive surface which is then scanned by a beam
of low-velocity electrons.

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The fluctuating voltage coupled out to a video

amplifier can be used to reproduce the scene being
imaged.
The electrical charge produced by an image will
remain in the face plate until it is scanned or until
the charge dissipates.
Pyroelectric photocathodes can be used to
produce a vidicon sensitive over a broad portion of
the infrared spectrum.

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A registered trademark of Philips for its Lead Oxide

(PbO).
Used frequently in broadcast camera applications
these tubes have low output, but a high signal-tonoise ratio.
They had excellent resolution compared to Image
Orthicons, but softer.
CBS Labs invented the first outboard edge
enhancement circuits to sharpen the edges of
Plumbicon generated images.

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Compared to Saticons, Plumbicons

had much higher resistance to burn in,
and comet and trailing artifacts from
bright lights in the shot. Saticons though,
usually had slightly higher resolution.
Plumbicon tubes remain a staple
imaging device in the medical field.
Narragansett Imaging is the only
company now making Plumbicons, and it
does so from the factories Philips built
for that purpose in Rhode Island, USA.

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Saticon was developed by

Hitachi(japan) in 1973 as a
camera tube suitable for
broadcast. It consists of
selenium, arsenic, and
tellurium and hence the name
Saticon.

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Constrution of Saticon
Construction of face plate, signal plate (tin oxide),
electron gun, focusing and deflecting devices is the
same as in vidicon
Saticons target plate consists mainly of selenium
which is the first chemical element that was tried in TV
camera tubes

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The transparent tin-oxide layer allows light to

fall on the target but being an electrical
conductor, it connects the current path to the
load resistor through the conducting ring.

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Silicon vidicon - is less

susceptible to damage by
excessive brightness of the
scene. It has high sensitivity
and lower lag. It sensitivity
covers infrared region.

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The target plate consists of a very thin n-type silicon wafer. A thin
silicon dioxide layer is applied over the wafer.

Then by photomasking and etching processes p-type material (boron)

is diffused into the wafer at various openings, resulting in an array of
silicon photodiodes.
A fine layer of gold is deposited for connection on the p-type layer.
This tube is useful in high light environment which produces image
lag in an ordinary vidicon.

Total number of diodes are 540x540 (about 300k). The diodes are
reversed biased by applying +10v to the signal plate.

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trademark of Toshiba Electric Co. Ltd.

multilayer arrangement consisting of
Tin oxide, Cadnium Selenide and Arsenic
Trisulfide.
features a high sensitivity over the
range of visual spectrum
typically more laggy than a Newvicon
but provide higher resolution.

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trademark of Matsushita Electric.

made of Amorphous Zinc Selenide.
originally developed by Philips as an
improved form of Vidicon.
high light sensitivity

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a registered trademark of the

Heimann division of EG&G.
This is a highly sensitive camera tube
with low dark current and excellent signal
uniformity and resolution.
Its surface consists of Cadmium
Selenide (CdSe)

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Resistron is a Vidicon type camera tube.

It is suited for routine diagnostic procedures, since it
provides high contrast with excellent resolution

High Sensitivity, Good Resolution.

Antimony Trisulfide cathode
Especially useful in high radiation environments
Electrostatic focusing, magnetic deflection
Works in standard vidicon cameras
Tube diameter: 25.8 mm length: 158 mm
Standard 8-pin socket.

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The Primicon is a high quality medical

grade tube developed by Thomson.
Primicon tubes have high resolution and
good lag characteristics.

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