The picture tube or “kinescope”

 Serves as the screen for a television receiver

 A luminescent phosphor coating provided on the inner surface of its face plate
produces light when hit by the electrons of the fast moving beam
 A monochrome picture tube has one electron gun and a continuous phosphor
coating that produces a picture in black and white
 For colour picture tubes the screen is formed of three different phosphors and there
are three electron beams, one for each colour phosphor

Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television

 Typical black and white picture tube

Electrostatic focussing and electromagnetic deflection

 The deflection coils are mounted externally in a

specially designed yoke that is fixed close to the
neck of the tube

 The coils when fed simultaneously with vertical and

horizontal scanning currents deflect the beam at a
fast rate to produce the raster

 The composite video signal that is injected either at

the grid or cathode of the tube, modulates the
electron beam to produce brightness variations on
the screen

Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television

Elements of a picture tube

Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television

 Elements of a picture tube
 Electron Gun

 The cathode is indirectly heated and consists of a cylinder of nickel that is coated at its end
with thoriated tungsten or barium and strontium oxides

 These emitting materials have low work-function and when heated release sufficient
electrons to form the necessary stream of electrons within the tube

 The control grid / Grid 1 is maintained at a negative potential with respect to cathode and
controls the flow of electrons from the cathode
o (it is a cylinder with a small circular opening to confine the electron stream to a small area)

 The accelerating anode (Grid 2) and the focusing anode (Grid 3)  are maintained at
different positive potentials with respect to the cathode
 can vary between + 200 V to + 600 V

 All the elements of the electron gun are connected to the base pins
Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television
 Electrostatic Focussing

 The electric field due to the positive potential at the accelerating grid (also known as 1st
anode) extends through the opening of the control grid right to the cathode surface

 The orientation of this field is such that besides accelerating the electrons down the tube, it
also brings all the electrons in the stream into a tiny spot  ‘crossover’

o This is known as the first electrostatic lens action

 The screen grid / focus electrode draws electrons from the crossover point and focuses those
at the viewing screen

 The focus anode is larger in diameter and is operated at a higher potential than the first
anode

Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television

 Beam Velocity

 To provide the electron stream sufficient velocity to reach the screen material  another
anode is included within the tube

 This is a conductive coating with colloidal graphite  inside of the wide bell of the tube

 This coating “called aquadag”

(usually extends from almost half-way into the narrow neck to within 3 cm of the
fluorescent screen)

 It is connected through a specially provided pin at the top or side of the glass bell to a
very high potential ( ~15 kV )

o The exact voltage depends on the tube size / It is about 18 kV for a 48 cm monochrome tube

Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television

 The electrons that get accelerated under the influence of the high voltage anode area,
attain very high velocities before they hit the screen

 Most of these electrons go straight and are not collected by the positive coating because
its circular structure provides a symmetrical accelerating field around all sides of the
beam

 The kinetic energy gained by the electrons while in motion is delivered to the atoms of the
phosphor coating when the beam hits the screen

 This energy is actually gained by the valence electrons of the atoms and they move to
higher energy levels

Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television

 Because of very high velocities of the electrons which hit the screen, secondary emission
takes place

 if these secondary emitted electrons are not collected, a negative space charge gets
formed near the screen which prevents the primary beam from arriving at the screen

 The conductive coating being at a very high positive potential collects the secondary
emitted electrons and thus serves the dual purpose of increasing the beam velocity and
removing unwanted secondary electrons

o A typical value of beam current is about 0.6 mA (20 kV applied at the aquadag coating)

Ref: R. R. Gulati, Monochrome and Colour Television