BILAYER STRUCTURE OF PD-AL2O3 FOR UV VIDICON APPLICATIONS

A bilayer structure of Pd-Al2O3 was developed as a signal plate for vi dicon TV tubes. The 20 Angstrom thick Pd layer served as the conductin g plate while the 30-50 Angstrom thick Al2O3 coating functioned as the transparent protecting film. The obtained signal plates had a sheet r esistance of 2.5 K Ohm and a transmission coefficient of 71% at a wave length of 250 nm. The main advantage of vidicons equipped with such si gnal plates is to have a dark current of less than 0.05 nA, which is s uitable for UV applications. The Pd-Al2O3 bilayers were produced by a novel sputtering method.