Recent Advances in Vidicons

Tube Registration. In recent years there has been considerable advancement made in the field of vidicons. If the number of tubes is to serve as an indication of advancement--a rather dubious criterion, I think--then there has indeed been much progress made. There are more than 20 vidicon types registered with EIA and at least an equal number of tubes with private labels by both American and foreign manufacturers. In addition, there are many experimental and developmental types still in the laboratory stage. No attempt will be made to cover this latter group if indeed such were possible. The rate of vidicon type registration is, to some extent, indicative of industry activity. Figure 1 shows the number of registrations by year; the rapid rise in rate in the past few years is apparent. Hopefully, the current standardization activity by the cognizant engineering committee of the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) will help reduce the rate without impeding technological advancement.