|
August 1966 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
|
In a 1966 issue of Radio-Electronics
magazine, several technological advancements were highlighted: A consulting
economist suggested that booming color TV sales - requiring
significant consumer spending - might be diverting funds from automobile purchases,
potentially reducing car sales by an estimated 800,000 units that year. That
brings to mind the old saying "Correlation does not imply causation," but maybe
so in that case. RCA Laboratories had developed a practical vapor-phase growth
technique for gallium arsenide crystals, enabling breakthroughs like
room-temperature semiconductor lasers, high-frequency Gunn-effect microwave
sources, and ultra-bright electroluminescent diodes. Philco introduced a visual
tuning eye for color TVs, aiding precise channel adjustment on higher-end
models. Finally, Westinghouse unveiled an open-air electron-beam welder, using a
helium-shielded beam for precision welding without a vacuum chamber.
News Briefs:
11/57 |
8/58 |
11/59 |
2/60 |
4/60 |
8/60 |
9/60 |
10/60 |
12/60 |
1/61 |
3/61 |
5/61 |
6/61 |
7/61 |
8/61 |
9/61 |
10/61 |
11/61 |
12/61 |
1/62 |
2/62 |
3/62 |
4/62 |
5/62 |
6/62 |
7/62 |
8/62 |
9/62 |
10/62 |
11/62 |
2/63 |
3/63 |
4/63 |
6/63 |
8/63 |
9/63 |
11/63 |
2/64 |
3/64 |
4/64 |
7/64 |
8/64 |
12/64 |
8/64 |
9/64 |
1/66 |
3/66 |
8/66 |
9/66 |
1/67 |
3/67 |
4/67 |
5/67 |
6/67 |
7/67 |
9/67 |
3/68 |
4/68 |
5/68 |
8/68 |
4/69 |
9/68 |
1/69 |
5/69 |
6/69 |
10/69 |
11/69 |
12/69
News Briefs
 Auto Sales Hurt by Color TV?
According to a New York consulting economist, the boom in color TV sales may
be more responsible for any decline in auto sales than the belated discovery by
prospective buyers that cars are not entirely safe. A typical color set, he says,
costs about $500 or more. A car costs about $3,000 with an average $1,000 trade-in.
Therefore a car requires about 4 times as much cash or credit as a color TV. This
year about 3.2 million more color sets will be sold than in 1965. Thus, the TV industry
could conceivably be responsible for affecting the sales of some 800,000 cars.
 Gallium Arsenide Crystals Practical with
New Technique
Dr. James Hillier, vice president of RCA Laboratories, has announced that for
the first time a practical technology has been developed for the use of gallium
arsenide alloys in semiconductor devices. This, he says, promises to be a third
major technology complementing the earlier methods for making practical devices
from germanium and silicon.
How the various elements are vaporized and flowed on the gallium substrate.
Methods that produce germanium and silicon crystals (such as alloying and diffusing)
have given poor device results for gallium arsenide. As a result there has been
little progress with that material. The work has been carried on for a number of
years. The method is known as vapor phase growth and is carried in a vacuum. All
the materials are prepared separately in gaseous form. They are then mixed and allowed
to flow over a solid crystal of gallium or one of its alloys. The crystal is kept
a little cooler than the gases so they condense on its surface. This forms a true
extension of the crystal, differing from it only in that it contains the required
impurities.
Experimental devices already produced by the new technology include:
The first semiconductor laser to generate physical light at room temperature.
A Gunn-effect microwave source that has operated at 40 GHz, the highest frequency
yet achieved this way.
The brightest electroluminescent diodes yet developed.
An electro-optical modulator that can modulate a visible laser beam transversely
at the rate of 100 million bits per second.
Experimental varactor diodes with the highest combination of cut-off
frequency and voltage breakdown yet achieved.
 New Electron-Beam Welder Now Works in Open
Air
Electron-beam welding, previously possible only in a vacuum chamber, can now
be carried out in free space with a new portable, out-of-vacuum electron beam welder
developed by Westinghouse. Besides working in open air, the device has been designed
so that the welding head can be brought to the work, a new feature in electron-beam
welders. In the new welder, an extremely powerful beam of electrons is ejected into
the air through a specially designed orifice system and then shielded from air by
a cloak of lightweight helium molecules. The equipment uses 13 kW at 150,000 volts.
The tube is pumped continuously to maintain internal vacuum. Electron-beam welding
produces a joint with the minimum of heat, therefore welds made by the process weaken
the metal less than any other type.
Philco Adds Tuning Eye to Color TV Receivers
The new Philco color TV line includes a visual tuning indicator, resembling those
used on stereo sound receivers. Converging green light bars indicate when the set
is tuned exactly to the correct point for best color. The tuning indicator appears
on the top model of the 23-inch line, all the 25-inch receivers and combinations
and on the 21-inch color sets above $489.
|
