Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc.

Rca Licensing Corporation

Thomas D Welles, Jr

Bruce G Marks

Andrew Good

Craig Clay Eshleman

An improved color picture tube includes a shadow mask and a dot screen, wherein the mask has two long sides and two short sides. The long sides of the mask parallel a central major axis of the mask, and the short sides parallel a central minor axis of the mask. The mask includes an array of apertures. The improvement comprises each of the shadow mask apertures being substantially rectangular with four sides. Two of the aperture sides approximately parallel the major axis and establish aperture height. The other two aperture sides approximately parallel the minor axis and establish aperture width The widths and heights of the apertures increase at a first rate and a second rate, respectively, from the center to the sides of the mask, along the major axis; and the widths and heights of the apertures increase at a third rate and a fourth rate, respectively, from the center to the top and bottom of the mask, along the minor axis.

Color picture tube having shadow mask with improved aperture shapes

An improved color picture tube includes a shadow mask which has a rectangular periphery with two long sides and two short sides. The mask has a major axis, which passes through the center of the mask and parallels the long sides, and a minor axis, which passes through the center of the mask and parallels the short sides. The mask includes slit-shaped apertures aligned in columns that essentially parallel the minor axis. Adjacent apertures in each column are separated by tie bars in the mask. The widths of the tie bars are graded in dimension. The grading is at least partially related to the amount of tie bar stretch occurring in a similar size mask having different tie bar widths.

Color picture tube having shadow mask with improved tie bar grading

An improved color picture tube includes a mask that has an aperture array including slit-shaped apertures aligned in columns that essentially parallel the minor axis and end at a border of the aperture array. Adjacent apertures in each column are separated by tie bars in the mask. The tie bars in one column are offset in the longitudinal direction, paralleling the minor axis, from the tie bars in each adjacent column. The spacing between tie bars in a column is the tie bar pitch at a location on the mask. A first set of columns, that includes every other column, has increased tie bar pitch at the ultimate end apertures, as compared to the tie bar pitch at the penultimate apertures in each of the columns. In a second set of columns, every other column not in the first set, has decreased tie bar pitch at the ultimate end apertures, as compared to the tie bar pitch at the penultimate apertures in each of the columns. The last tie bars before the ends of the aperture columns in the second set are shorter than the next to the last tie bars, measured in the longitudinal direction of the columns, and the ultimate apertures at the ends of all of the aperture columns end on a smooth border line.

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York, PA, United States of America

Thomas D Welles, Jr