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By 1957, the TR-63 transistor radio had finally made inroads in the
market. Secure in this knowledge, Ibuka turned his attention to longrange
planning.
Ibuka's prediction that "This will be the age of silicon" led the
perceptive semiconductor staff to realize that he intended to work on
television. In January of 1958, Iwama ordered Tsukamoto to begin research
on a silicon transistor for television-use. At Sony, transistor research
and development always take the final product into account, and this
project was no exception.
Television transistors used in deflection and image output in
cathode-ray tubes consume a large amount of electricity. As a result, the
surrounding air heats up. Thus television requires transistors that are
stable under high temperatures. This is where silicon came in. Silicon,
however, was not without its drawbacks.
R&D efforts ran into complications from the outset. High quality
silicon crystal was hard to produce. Silicon has a much higher melting
point than germanium and is extremely active chemically at high
temperatures. This makes it difficult to obtain crystals which have a high
level of purity. In addition, material for crucibles (silicon corrodes
quartz crucibles), temperature control apparatus, and devices for pulling
the monocrystals posed many more problems than those confronted during the
process of creating germanium crystals.
In August, Tsukamoto's staff began research on circuits to try to
determaine what type of semiconductor should be used. With vacuum-tube
TVs, engineers had a rough idea of their performance capabilities once they
were designed. Designing a television transistor on paper alone is not of
much use, however. The crux of the design is running actual experiments
over and over again. Moreover, in contrast to radio, which leaves some
room for error since it involves audio alone, television is like a
measurement instrument---it leaves no room for error, since all
imperfections appear brightly and clearly on the screen. Extremely
demanding conditions had to be met. At any rate, the fragile semiconductors
were cracked and crushed into little pieces during circuit experimentation.
Desktops and drawers of the staff involved in the experiments were
literally full of broken semiconductor pieces. Tsukamoto's staff was
preoccupied alternately with growing and depositing the semiconductors on
the one hand and developing circuits and cathode-ray tubes on the other.
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After a year of experimentation, an acceptable transistor was born.
The semiconductors and circuits were still far from ideal, however, as was
obvious in the prototype TV set that was built using the newly developed
devices. The team's continued research and development paid off in
November, though, when they completed a high frequency germanium transistor
which was capable of receiving channels four through twelve. This was just
one month before the announcement that Sony had developed the TV8-301
television.
The TV8-301 employed 23 silicon and germanium transistors, 15 diodes,
and 2 high-voltage diodes. In addition, Tsukamoto and his staff developed
9 new transistor devices, including the 2SC41, a silicon mesa transistor
for horizontal deflection, the 2SA161, a germanium mesa transistor for high
frequency, and the 2SC19, a grown silicon transistor for image output.
This achievement gained Sony worldwide recognition for its excellence
in transistorized television technology and transistor technology in
general. It did not, however, help to sell the new televisions. When the
sets went on sale in 1960, television was still considered a luxury
commodity for the average family. For the price, most people considered a
large console set more practical than a portable model. In fact, most of
the early Sony TV owners were either very rich or eccentric. And, to be
truthful, the TV8-301 broke down often. Having gone through such a
difficult delivery, it was known as Sony's "frail little baby."
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