Recent Developments in ARC Suppression for Picture Tubes

A review of past developments in picture tube arc suppression systems and a description of an extremely effective new system are presented. Known commercial devices employ an internal resistive coating between the gun anode and picture tube ultor (anode button). A significant difficulty encountered with such devices is due to highly conductive barium getter material which is evaporated inside the picture tube during processing. It tends to short out the internal resistive coating. Conventional antenna getters employ a spring support which also may cause bypassing of the arc suppression coating. Previously described arc limiting systems circumvent this problem by mounting the getter from the anode button or color picture tube mask using special directional shields to minimize the amount of getter flash on the arc suppression resistor coating.