New Developments in Integrated Circuits for Television and Other Consumer Systems

When T.V. setmakers first started using integrated circuits in 1970 their approach was naturally cautious. One or two circuits were tried initially in small signal low voltage areas of the receiver in order to gain confidence. This start was made with the sound i.f. and signal processing (jungle) circuits. The reliability of integrated circuits as far as the setmaker was concerned was unproven and his requirement for reliability was not clearly defined. Clearly computer standards of reliability although acceptable to the customer would be too expensive for this market. Setmakers and i.c. manufacturers have learned from each other and by working together acceptable standards of performance and reliability have been established. Confidence in integrated circuits has grown so that now on average four are used in each receiver with some designs using as many as nine. The total U.K. market for linear consumer integrated circuits has grown from about one million in 1970 to twelve million in 1975. Rising labour costs in the setmaking industry has been the stimulus for the introduction of integrated circuits and they have only been accepted where there has been a cost saving to the user. In order to increase the value of integrated circuits more circuit functions have been combined and process and technology advances have enabled larger circuits to be made economically. For really low cost manufacture a large production base is required, and although initially there were numbers of customer special circuits made by i.c.