TV TECHNOLOGY

ETT 05103
Introduction
Television system is a system for transmitting visual
images and sound that are reproduced on screens,
chiefly used to broadcast programs for
entertainment, information, and education.
Television means ‘to see from a distance’.
The desire in man to do so has been there for ages.
In the early years of the twentieth century many
scientists experimented with the idea of using
selenium photosensitive cells for converting light
from pictures into electrical signals and
transmitting them through wires.
The History of Television
• The first demonstration of actual television was given by J.L.
Baird in UK and C.F. Jenkins in USA around 1927 by using the
technique of mechanical scanning employing rotating discs.
• However, the real breakthrough occurred with the
invention of the cathode ray tube and the success of V.K.
Zworykin of the USA in perfecting the first camera tube
(the iconoscope) based on the storage principle.
• By 1930 electromagnetic scanning of both camera and
picture tubes and other ancillary circuits such as for beam
deflection, video amplification, etc. were developed.
• Though television broadcast started in 1935, world political
developments and the Second World War slowed down the
progress of television. With the end of the war, television
rapidly grew into a popular medium for dispersion of news
and mass entertainment.
LIGHT SPECTRUM AND
VIDEO CAMERA
• LIGHT SPECTRUM
-Light is electromagnetic radiation within a certain
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum which is
visible to the human eye and is responsible for the
sense of sight.
Light spectrum is the portion of an electromagnetic
spectrum that consist of many different wavelengths of
energy produced by a light source.
Light is measured in nanometers (nm). Each nanometer
represents a wavelength of light or band of light
energy.
Visible light as the part of the electromagnetic spectrum
roughly begin from 400nm to 700nm.
• Light which contains a relatively narrow range of
wavelengths looks coloured.
• The colours correspond to those in the rainbow,
ranging from violet (upwards of 400 nm) through
blue, green (around 550 nm) and yellow, to red (up
to about 700 nm).
• Normal sunlight, which contains the whole range, is
usually described as white light
Fig;1. Electromagnetic spectrum
Speed of light and
refractive index
Light Brightness
• Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in
which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting
light.
• The "brightness" of light can mean different things:
• for example, the amount of light coming from a light
source is luminous flux (lumens), the amount of light
falling on a surface is illuminance (lux), and the amount
of light reflected off a surface is luminance (cd/m2).
• These quantities are different because the farther a
surface is from a light source, the less light that falls
on the surface, and the darker a surface is, the less
incident light it reflects.
• Luminous intensity
-The amount of light that travels in certain
directions from the source is called the
"luminous intensity" and is measured in
candelas (cd).
Figure 2: Luminous flux, Luminous intensity, Illuminance and L
 TV Camera

• A television camera is a device that provides the

actual optoelectronic conversion required to
formulate the video signal corresponding to the
visual information in the scene to be televised.
• The audio signal corresponding to the sound
information is provided by the microphone.
• Camera optics and Camera Electronics are the
other vital parts.
 TV Camera
Parts of the camera.
• The standard TV camera consists of three main
parts which are the lens, the camera body itself, and
the viewfinder.
a. The lens selects a certain field of view and produces
a small optical image of this view.
b. The camera body includes camera pickup tube(s) or
a solid state imaging device and the internal optical
system which consists of a series of mirrors or prisms
c. Viewfinders are an intricate part of the camera and
are designed for operator use for framing, focusing,
and automatic messages displayed on the screen.
The viewfinder is about 1.5 inches in size.
 TV Camera

How the camera works.

• All TV cameras, whether color or monochrome,
being studio models or small portable ones, work
on the same basic principle, the conversion of
an optical image into electrical signals that
are reconverted by a television set into visible
screen images
 TV Camera

Figure 1

Basic principle of the camera.

The light, reflected off the object (a) is gathered by
the lens (b) and focused on the camera pickup tube
(c). There light is transformed into electrical energy,
the video signal. It is amplified and processed (d, e)
and converted back to visible screen images in the
viewfinder (f).
 TV Camera
Monochrome cameras.
• The monochrome camera is color blind. Its single
camera pickup tube reacts only to the various degrees of
brightness, which are the light and dark areas and shades
of gray of a scene as viewed by the lens
• Basically, the light areas in the screen produce a relatively
strong video signal, the dark area a weak signal.
• When reproduced on a television monitor, the strong
video signal shows up as a bright spot on the screen and
the weak signal as a dark area.
• If two colors happen to be the same brightness,
a monochrome camera produces video signals of
identical strengths, which in turn, show up on the monitor
as the same shade of gray
 TV Camera
The color camera.
• The color camera works on the same fundamental
principle as the monochrome camera, with the
conversion of the electrical energy (video signal)
into visible images.
• Points to understand; internal optical systems,
imaging devices, electronic characteristics of
color cameras,
and camera types and operational
characteristics
 TV Camera
a. Internal optical systems
• In the monochrome camera the lens catches the
light and focuses it directly onto the front surface of
a single camera pickup tube. The color camera,
however, first splits the entering beam of light into
the three primary light colors, red, blue, and green.
• These three colors are then processed by separate
channels, called chrominance (color) channels.
Thus, we have a red channel to process red light
into the red signal, the green channel for the green
signal, and the blue channel for the blue signal
 TV Camera
b. Beam splitters. The color separation device that splits
the white light into the three primary colors (or,
into some other colors for Electronic News Gathering
(ENG) cameras) is called the beam splitter.
• There are three types of beam splitters, the dichroic
mirror system, the prism block, and the striped filter
(1) Dichroic mirror system.
• In the dichroic mirror system, the light that
comes through the lens is separated by three
dichroic (light separating) mirrors into the three
primary light colors of red, green, and blue, and
directed by other mirrors and lenses into the
three camera pickup tubes (fig 2).
dichroic mirror system

Figure 2
TV Camera

Figure 3
BASIC CAMERA DESIGN
A. Viewfinder

B. Camera Body

C. Pedestal

D. Lens

E. Tally Light
 Camera Body & Functions
1. Scanning Element- transforms light into pixels
a. Tube
b. Charge-Coupled Devices - CCD

2. Filter- adjust for different types of light

3. White Balance Switch- sets color balance

4. Phase Shift- aligns red and blue fields

 Camera Picture tube
• Television camera-tube is the heart of a television
camera set-up but there is a lot more than the
tube in a complete camera set-up
• Important features of camera picture tube
-it must be (i) sensitivity to visible light, (ii) wide
dynamic range with respect to light intensity, and
(iii) ability to resolve details while viewing a
multielement scene.
• The two photoelectric effects used for converting
variations of light intensity into electrical variations
are (i) photoemission and (ii) photoconductivity
 Photo-emissive Camera Tube
A Photo-emissive Camera-tube in general incorporates;
1. A photosensitive surface placed in the plane of the
camera lens
2. A surface capable of accumulating electronics charge
(Cesium-silver or bismuth-silver-cesium oxides are
preferred as photoemissive surfaces because they
are sensitive to incandescent light and have spectral
response very close to the human eye)
3. An electron beam that scan the target surface to
produce the video signal
 Photoconductive Camera Tube
• The second method of producing an electrical image
is by photoconduction, where the conductivity or
resistivity of the photosensitive surface varies in
proportion to the intensity of light focused on it.
• In general the semiconductor metals including
selenium, tellurium and lead with their oxides have
this property known as photoconductivity.
• The variations in resistance at each point across the
surface of the material is utilized to develop a varying
signal by scanning it uniformly with an electron beam.
 Types of Camera Tubes
• The first developed storage type of camera tube was
‘Iconoscope’ which has now been replaced by image-
orthicon because of its high light sensitivity, stability and
high quality picture capabilities.
• The light sensitivity is the ratio of the signal output to the
incident illumination.
• The light sensitivity is the ratio of the signal output to the
incident illumination.
• Next to be developed was the vidicon and is much simpler
in operation
• The third camera tube was the plumbicon.
Camera Picture tube
 IMAGE ORTHICON
• This tube makes use of the high photoemissive
sensitivity obtainable from photocathodes, image
multiplication at the target caused by secondary
emission and an electron multiplier.
• It has three main sections: image section, scanning
section and electron gun-cum-multiplier section.
 Image orthicon …

Fig: Principle of operation of Image Orthicon

 (i) Image section
• Photocathode is the glass plate coated with a silver-antimony coating
sensitized with cesium
• Photo cathode is semitransparent and the light rays penetrate it to
reach its inner surface from where electron emission takes place.
• The number of electrons emitted at any point in the photocathode has
a distribution corresponding to the brightness of the optical image, an
electron image of the scene or picture gets formed on the target side
of the photo-coating and extends towards it.
• Through the conversion efficiency of the photocathode is quite high, it
cannot store charge being a conductor. For this reason, the electron
image produced at the photocathode is made to move towards the
target plate located at a short distance from it.
• The target plate is made of a very thin sheet of glass and can store the
charge received by it. This is maintained at about 400 volts more
positive with respect to the photocathode, and the resultant electric
field gives the desired acceleration and motion to the emitted
electrons towards it.
 (i) Image section…
• The electrons, while in motion, have a tendency to repel each other and this
can result in distortion of the information now available as charge image. To
prevent this divergence effect an axial magnetic field, generated in this region
by the ‘long focus coil’ is employed.
• This magnetic field imparts helical motion of increasing pitch and focuses the
emitted electrons on the target into a well defined electron image of the
original optical image.
• The image side of the target has a very small deposit of cesium and thus has a
high secondary emission ratio.
• Because of the high velocity attained by the electrons while in motion from
photocathode to the target plate, secondary emission results, as the electrons
bombard the target surface.
• These secondary electrons are collected by a wire-mesh screen, which is
located in front of the target on the image side and is maintained at a slightly
higher potential with respect to the target.
• The wire-mesh screen has about 300 meshes per cm2 with an open area of 50
to 75 per cent, so that the screen wires do not interfere with the electron
image.
• The secondary electrons leave behind on the target plate surface, a positive
charge distribution, corresponding to the light intensity distribution on the
original photocathode.
 (ii) Scanning Section
• The electron gun structure produces a beam of electrons that is accelerated
towards the target.
• Positive accelerating potentials of 80 to 330 volts are applied to grid 2, grid 3,
and grid 4 which is connected internally to the metalized conductive coating on
the inside wall of the tube.
• The electron beam is focused at the target by magnetic field of the external
focus coil and by voltage supplied to grid 4. The alignment coil provides
magnetic field that can be varied to adjust the scanning beam’s position, if
necessary, for correct location.
• Deflection of electron beam’s to scan the entire target plate is accomplished
by magnetic fields of vertical and horizontal deflecting coils mounted on yoke
external to the tube.
• These coils are fed from two oscillators, one working at 15625 Hz, for
horizontal deflection, and the other operating at 50 Hz, for vertical deflection.
• The target plate is close to zero potential and therefore electrons in the
scanning beam can be made to stop their forward motion at its surface and
then return towards the gun structure.
 (ii) Scanning Section…
• The grid 4 voltage is adjusted to produce uniform deceleration of
electrons for the entire target area. As a result, electrons in the
scanning beam are slowed down near the target.
• This eliminates any possibility of secondary emission from this side of
the target plate.
• If a certain element area on the target plate reaches a potential of,
say, 2 volts during the storage time, then as a result of its thinness the
scanning beam ‘sees’ the charge deposited on it, part of which gets
diffused to the scanned side and deposits an equal number of negative
charges on the opposite side.
• Some electrons get deposited on the target plate to neutralize the
positive charge distributed on its surface, while the remaining stop at
its surface and turn back to go towards the first electrode of the
electron multiplier.
• The resultant beam current that turns away from the target, is thus,
maximum for black areas and minimum for bright areas on the picture.
 (iii) Electron Multiplier
• The returning stream of electrons arrive at the gun close to the aperture
from which electron beam emerged. The aperture is a part of a metal
disc covering the gun electrode.
• When the returning electrons strike the disc which is at a positive
potential of about 300 volts, with respect to the target, they produce
secondary emission.
• The disc serves as first stage of the electron multiplier. Successive stages
of the electron multiplier are arranged symmetrically around and back of
the first stage. Therefore secondary electrons are attracted to the
dynodes at progressively higher positive potentials. Five stages of
multiplication are used, details of which are shown in Fig. 1.2.
• Each multiplier stage provides a gain to amplify the video signal by
multiplication obtained at the electron multiplier. The multiplication so
obtained maintains a high signal to noise ratio.
• The secondary electrons are finally collected by the anode, which is
connected to the highest supply voltage of + 1500 volts in series with a
load resistance RL of 20k
• The Video signal produced at the output is equivalent to the voltage drop
variations on the resistor RL.
Fig.1.2. Electron-multiplier section of the
Image Orthicon.
 Vidicon

Fig. 1.3. Vidicon camera tube

cross-section.
 Operation principles
• As shown in the diagram, the target consists of a thin photo
conductive layer of either selenium or anti-mony compounds.
• This is deposited on a transparent conducting film, coated on the
inner surface of the face plate. This conductive coating is known as
signal electrode or plate.
• Image side of the photolayer, which is in contact with the signal
electrode, is connected to DC supply through the load resistance RL.
• The beam that emerges from the electron gun is focused on surface
of the photo conductive layer by combined action of uniform
magnetic field of an external coil and electrostatic field of grid No 3.
Grid No. 4 provides a uniform decelerating field between itself, and
the photo conductive layer, so that the electron beam approaches
the layer with a low velocity to prevent any secondary emission.
• Deflection of the beam, for scanning the target, is obtained by
vertical and horizontal deflecting coils, placed around the tube.
• Charge Image
• The photo layer has a thickness of about 0.0001 cm, and
behaves like an insulator with a resistance of approximately
20 MΩ when in dark. With light focused on it, the photon
energy enables more electrons to go to the conduction
band and this reduces its resistivity.
• When bright light falls on any area of the photoconductive
coating, resistance across the thickness of that portion gets
reduces to about 2 MΩ. Thus, with an image on the target,
each point on the gun side of the photo layer assumes a
certain potential with respect to the DC supply, depending
on its resistance to the signal plate.
• Thus, a pattern of positive potentials appears, on the gun
side of the photo layer, producing a charge image, that
corresponds to the incident optical image.
Fig. 1.4 Circuit for output signal from a
Vidicon camera tube.
• Signal Current
• As the beam scans the target plate, it encounters
different positive potentials on the side of the
photolayer that faces the gun. Sufficient number of
electrons from the beam are then deposited on the
photolayer surface to reduce the potential of each
element towards the zero cathode potential. The
remaining electrons, not deposited on the target,
return back and are not utilized in the vidicon.
However, the sudden change in potential on each
element while the beam scans, causes a current flow in
the signal electrode circuit producing a varying voltage
across the load resistance RL.
 THE PLUMBICON
• This picture tube has overcome many of the less favorable features of
standard vidicon.
• It has fast response and produces high quality pictures at low light levels.
• Its smaller size and light weight, together with low-power operating
characteristics, makes it an ideal tube for transistorized television
cameras.
• Except for the target, plumbicon is very similar to the standard vidicon.
• Focus and deflection are both obtained magnetically.
• Its target operates effectively as a P–I–N semiconductor diode.
• The inner surface of the faceplate is coated with a thin transparent
conductive layer of tin oxide (SnO2). This forms a strong N type (N +) layer
and serves as the signal plate of the target. On the scanning side of this
layer is deposited a photoconductive layer of pure lead monoxide (PbO)
which is intrinsic or ‘I’ type.
• Finally the pure PbO is doped to form a P type semiconductor on
which the scanning beam lands. The details of the target are
shown in Fig. 1.6 (a). The overall thickness of the target is 15 ×
10– 6 m. Figure 1.6 (b) shows necessary circuit details for
developing the video signal.
• The photoconductive target of the plumbicon functions similar
to the photoconductive target in the vidicon, except for the
method of discharging each storage element.
• In the standard vidicon, each element acts as a leaky capacitor,
with the leakage resistance decreasing with increasing light
intensity.
• In the plumbicon, however, each element serves as a capacitor in
series with a reverse biased light controlled diode. In the signal
circuit, the conductive film of tin oxide (SnO2), is connected to
the target supply of 40 volts through an external load resistance
RL to develop the camera output signal voltage.
• Light from the scene being televised is focussed through the
transparent layer of tin-oxide on the photoconductive lead
monoxide.
• Without light the target prevents any conduction
because of absence of any charge carriers and so
there is little or no output current.
• A typical value of dark current is around 4 nA (4 ×
10– 9 Amp).
• The incidence of light on the target results in
photoexcitation of semiconductor junction
between the pure PbO and doped layer.
• The resultant decrease in resistance causes signal
current flow which is proportional to the incident
light on each photo element.
• The overall thickness of the target is 10 to 20 μm.
 THE PLUMBICON…

Fig. 1.6. Plumbicon camera tube (a) target details (b)

output signal current
Construction of Plumbicon
 Advantages
• It offers more sensitivity than Vidicon.
• Plumbicon eliminates the problem of image
lag.
• It possesses high SNR of about 47 dB.
• The value of dark current is almost negligible
i.e., 1 nA.
• It is small in size than the image orthicon.
 Disadvantages
• It is less sensitive than image orthicon.
• Plumbicon has a large size than Vidicon tube and thus
bulkier that the latter.
• It offers less resolution than a Vidicon tube.

Applications
• As the problem of image lag is eliminated in Plumbicon
thus is highly suited for colour TV applications. These
camera tubes are also used in studious and outdoor
shooting.
 SILICON DIODE ARRAY VIDICON
• This is another variation of vidicon where the target is prepared
from a thin n-type silicon wafer instead of deposited layers on
the glass faceplate.
• The final result is an array of silicon photodiodes for the target
plate. Figure 1.7 shows constructional details of such a target.
• As shown there, one side of the substrate (n-type silicon) is
oxidized to form a film of silicon dioxide (SiO2) which is an
insulator.
• Then by photomasking and etching processes, an array of fine
openings is made in the oxide layer. These openings are used as
a diffusion mask for producing corresponding number of
individual photodiodes. Boron, as a dopent is vapourized
through the array of holes, forming islands of p-type silicon on
one side of the n-type silicon substrate.
• Finally a very thin layer of gold is deposited on
each p-type opening to form contacts for signal
output. The other side of the substrate is given
an antireflection coating.
• The resulting p-n photodiodes are about 8 μm
in diameter. The silicon target plate thus
formed is typically 0.003 cm thick, 1.5 cm
square having an array of 540 × 540
photodiodes. This target plate is mounted in a
vidicon type of camera tube.
Fig.1.7 Constructional details (enlarged) of a silicon diode array target
plate.
 Scanning and Operation
• The photodiodes are reverse biased by applying +10 V or so to the n +
layer on the substrate.
• This side is illuminated by the light focused onto it from the image.
• The incidence of light generates electron-hole pairs in the substrate.
Under influence of the applied electric field, holes are swept over to
the ‘p’ side of the depletion region thus reducing reverse bias on the
diodes.
• This process continues to produce storage action till the scanning
beam of electron gun scans the photodiode side of the substrate.
• The scanning beam deposits electrons on the p-side thus returning the
diodes to their original reverse bias. The consequent sudden increase
in current across each diode caused by the scanning beam represents
the video signal.
• The current flows through a load resistance in the battery circuit and
develops a video signal proportional to the intensity of light falling on
the array of photodiodes. A typical value of peak signal current is 7 μA
for bright white light.
• The vidicon employing such a multidiode
silicon target is less susceptible to damage or
burns due to excessive high lights.
• It also has low lag time and high sensitivity to
visible light which can be extended to the
infrared region. A particular make of such a
vidicon has the trade name of ‘Epicon’.
• Such camera tubes have wide applications in
industrial, educational and CCTV (closed
circuit television) services.