Trinitron

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Sony color television set with a Trinitron picture tube, circa 1970s

Trinitron was Sony's trade name for a color picture tube technology in which the phosphors were arranged as strips. The three electron beam systems were not arranged in a triangle (delta or triple arrangement), but horizontally next to one another (in-line).

history

Sony Chromatron color television

In 1967, Sony developed the so-called Trinitron picture tube, the successor to the Chromatron technology that had been produced up to that point, but was complex and error-prone at the time , which almost ruined Sony. The Trinitron technology used a stripe mask instead of the perforated mask previously used in color picture tubes . This allowed up to 20% (theoretically up to 33%) of the electrons to pass to the phosphor - around 5% more than color picture tubes of the time. The result was a higher contrast image.

Later a Trinitron television with a flat front

A variant that differed not only in its stripe mask but also in only one instead of three electron guns initially harbored difficulties. The freely oscillating vertical mask strips sometimes caused the electron beam to arrive in the wrong place when vibrated. The result was false colors that were irregularly distributed over the image. The solution for this was one or two horizontally attached tungsten wires that held the mask together.

In April 1968 the first model KV-1310 with a 13 inch screen was announced. Sales were to begin in mid-October. In 1973 Sony won the Emmy Technical Award for the Trinitron tube.

After overcoming the initial difficulties, the Trinitron technology was established on the market on a broad basis. Sony developed it over decades. New etching processes made finer masks possible, new phosphors improved color and brightness properties. The screen was initially uniformly curved ( spherical cap section), later only in the horizontal (section of a cylinder surface ); Finally, it was possible to produce screens with a flat front ( Flat surface HR Trinitron ).

The last stage of development of the Trinitron picture tube for televisions is a picture tube in which the number of mask strips has been increased to approx. 1400, which allowed HDTV images to be displayed in almost native resolution. A corresponding HDTV-capable television was offered by Sony in the USA, the Middle East, Australia and East Asia, but not in Europe.

In total, over 280 million Trinitron tubes were manufactured.

advantages

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Shadow mask (left) compared to a strip mask (Trinitron)

The convergence correction of the deflection angles of the three electron beams is much easier with electron beam systems arranged side by side than with triple arrangement. In addition, a higher luminous intensity and better sharpness were achieved.

In the first Trinitron picture tubes, the fluorescent screen was not a surface curved in two axes, but a section of a cylinder jacket with a large diameter. Vertical lines therefore appear straight even when viewed from different angles, which was especially important for CAD applications. Compared to only max. 23% in normal CRT devices theoretically hit up to 33% of the electrons in the Trinitron picture tube on the phosphor layer and thus produce a brighter and higher-contrast image.

The dark coloring of the screen glass and an aluminum-backed fluorescent layer with black separating strips between the colors led to further increases in contrast ( Black Trinitron ). The technology was also used in so-called black matrix picture tubes.

disadvantage

Sometimes it was annoying that if you look closely you can see one to three very thin retaining wires on a light background, which are located within the glass bulb of the picture tube and are noticeable as a fine shadow on the monitor image. Since the construction of the strip mask is very sensitive to horizontal vibrations (e.g. when the volume of the built-in loudspeakers is high), one to three of these retaining wires are attached in the horizontal direction of the picture tube to stabilize it, depending on the size of the picture tube.

Another disadvantage of the Trinitron construction was the higher weight compared to other picture tubes, which results from the fact that the wires of the strip mask had to be stretched in a solid metal frame in order to ensure image stability and durability of the picture tube.

With the last series of Trinitron tubes with flat picture tubes, additional weight was added, because the tube was flat on the outside, but still curved on the inside, so there was additional glass on the front; the 20 inch BVM-A 20 F1U with flat-trinitron screen weighed 40 kg, the PVM-20L1 28 kg.

Application and related technology

Trinitron monitor (in the middle) in a computer system
Editing station with Trinitron monitor on the left (2005)

Picture tubes based on the Trinitron technology were primarily used in TV sets, but have also been widely used in computer monitors since the 1980s. They were also used in special industrial equipment, medical technology or as (HDTV) studio monitors in film and television studios, some of which will still be used in 2020.

Since most of the patents on the Trinitron concept expired at the end of the 1990s, other manufacturers were also able to fall back on the properties of Sony's tube technology.

The production of Trinitron tubes was stopped in Japan in 2004 and worldwide around March 2008, because LCD and plasma screens had replaced the classic tube televisions in the industrialized countries and the production had become unprofitable. However, around 2013 Sony produced small numbers of Trinitron tubes for professional and industrial applications in a factory in Singapore.

See also

Web links

Commons : Trinitron  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b t-online.de, These devices made history , accessed on June 5, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b fernsehmuseum.info, The Sony Trinitron technology , accessed on June 5, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b sony.net/SonyInfo, Chapter 14 Trinitron Takes Off , accessed on June 7, 2020 (with picture; English).
  4. ↑ a b soundandvision.com of July 8, 2012, Sony Trinitron Television (English), accessed June 6, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c d Sony catalog of professional Trinitron monitors (BVM-A series) 2006 (English; PDF, 1.0 MB), accessed on June 7, 2020
  6. ↑ Sony HD CRT TV - Best TV for Gaming on Retro Mini Classic Consoles? KD-34XBR960 Trinitron WEGA HDTV on YouTube , August 29, 2019
  7. ↑ a b c Sony Pulls Plug on Historic Trinitron TV. In: spectrum.ieee.org. March 5, 2008, accessed June 5, 2020 .
  8. ↑ areadvd.de of May 27, 2004, test: Sony KV-36HQ100E , accessed on May 8, 2020.
  9. ↑ a b Sony catalog of professional Trinitron monitors (PVM-L1 series) 2003 , (PDF, 188 kB), accessed on June 7, 2020.
  10. ↑ tomshardware.com/reviews of March 19, 2002, Comparison: Twelve 19 "CRT Monitors , accessed June 7, 2020.
  11. ↑ Inaugural Dissertation Human Medicine at the University of Marburg April 25, 2006, page 61 (PDF, 10.4 MB), accessed on June 7, 2020.
  12. ↑ Investigation by the Veterinary Medicine Faculty of the University of Leipzig, January / February 2012, page 2 below, Tab. 1 Technical Equipment (PDF, 1.3 MB), accessed on June 7, 2020.
  13. ↑ marketwatch.com of March 3, 2008, Sony to stop making old-style cathode ray tube TVs , accessed June 8, 2020.
  14. ↑ welt.de of February 11, 2006, LG Philips ends the era of tube televisions in Europe , accessed on June 8, 2020.
  15. ↑ Woodhead Publishing 2013, Organic Light-Emitting Diodes, page 447 (English, at Google Books), accessed June 5, 2013.