ABSTRACT
The cathode ray tube (CRT) is unequaled in its ability to produce dynamic, quality, high-information-content imagery at high resolution. Even more impressive is that it achieves this for a lower cost per pixel than any other comparable electronic display technology. Ferdinand Braun was the first person to envision the CRT as a tool for the display of information and is generally credited with the invention of the first device to be a direct forerunner to the modern CRT. His design contained all of the same elements as today’s CRTs. It utilized a cathode as an electron source, two control coils for vertical and horizontal deflection, an anode for electron acceleration and beam control, and a focusing slit. The cathode generates the stream of electrons used to form the image-writing beam. The traditional cathode is a metal conductor such as nickel coated with a thin layer of oxide, typically a barium strontium compound.
