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Nimo was the trademark of a family of small
Nimo was the trademark of a family of small cathode-ray tube
A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, a ...
(CRTs) used for numerical displays. They were manufactured by Industrial Electronic Engineers (IEE) around the mid-1960s. The tube had ten electron gun
file:Egun.jpg, Electron gun from a cathode-ray tube
file:Vidicon Electron Gun.jpg, The electron gun from an RCA Vidicon video camera tube
An electron gun (also called electron emitter) is an electrical component in some vacuum tubes that produc ...
s with stencil
Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object. The holes allow the pigment to reach only some parts of the surface creatin ...
s that shaped the electron beam
Since the mid-20th century, electron-beam technology has provided the basis for a variety of novel and specialized applications in semiconductor manufacturing, microelectromechanical systems, nanoelectromechanical systems, and microscopy.
Mechani ...
as digits.
Details
The Nimo tube operated on a similar principle as thecharactron
Charactron was a U.S. registered trademark (number 0585950, 23 February 1954) of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair) for its shaped electron beam cathode ray tube. Charactron CRTs performed functions of both a display device and a ...
, but used a much simpler design. They were intended as single digit, simple displays, or as four or six digits by means of a special horizontal magnetic deflection system. Having only three electrode types (a filament
The word filament, which is descended from Latin ''filum'' meaning " thread", is used in English for a variety of thread-like structures, including:
Astronomy
* Galaxy filament, the largest known cosmic structures in the universe
* Solar filament ...
, an anode
An anode usually is an electrode of a polarized electrical device through which conventional current enters the device. This contrasts with a cathode, which is usually an electrode of the device through which conventional current leaves the devic ...
and ten different grids), the driving circuit for this tube was very simple, and as the image was projected on the glass face, it allowed a much wider viewing angle than, for example, Nixie tube
A Nixie tube ( ), or cold cathode display, is an electronics, electronic device used for display device, displaying numerals or other information using glow discharge.
The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode and multiple cathodes, shaped like ...
s, which Nimo tried to replace.
The tube required 1750 volts direct current
Direct current (DC) is one-directional electric current, flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor (material), conductor such as a wire, but can also flow throug ...
(DC) for the anode and also required 1.1 volts for the filaments, as well as a cathode bias for the filaments that enables or disables the display of a character on a specific tube. This allows the display tubes to be multiplexed, simplifying the interface circuitry.
The German tube manufacturer Telefunken
Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the ''AEG (German company), Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company").
Prior to ...
tried to sell an unlicensed copy of the design under the type number XM1000, but was sued by IEE in 1969 and lost, having to destroy all tubes already produced. Only a few survived, most of them not yet labeled.
IEE also offered a version of the Nimo tube that could show 4 digits at the same time, and had plans for a 6 digit version. The Nimo 64/Nimo 6500 had 64 electron guns with 64 different characters and could show 5 lines of text with 8 characters per line. It was available in 3 variants: EBCDIC, ASCII and Universal which had non-standard characters.
See also
*Charactron
Charactron was a U.S. registered trademark (number 0585950, 23 February 1954) of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair) for its shaped electron beam cathode ray tube. Charactron CRTs performed functions of both a display device and a ...
, another tube stencil based character display
References
External links
* by Fran Blanche * {{YouTube, jvN0t9yZds8, title="Developing the Nimo Display Tube – The Untold Story!" with original documents from the original engineers, link=no by Fran Blanche Cathode ray tube Television technology Vacuum tube displays