Flat TV Screen Research and Development
Since my arrival in Canada, from September, 1970, to February, 1971, I had sent out well over 100 employment applications to work in the research with what appeared to be major electrical manufacturing companies in Canada. To my dismay, most of them responded with an employment application form for their mother company in the USA. I never knew that approx. 95% of companies in Canada were owned by the United States. Well I didn’t come to Canada to get a research job in the States, and get drafted to serve in one of their wars across the globe, as it was the practice then, so I tried Canadian universities.
After I sent my resumes to all major universities in Canada, the Dean of the University of Waterloo Physics Department, professor Don Brodie responded. He was interested in my work experience with amorphous, InGaAS semiconductor junctions for photovoltaic applications. In the job interview, professor Brodie suggested I join the Waterloo Research Institute team to work on semiconductor half-lighting control layer for flat, electroluminescent TV panels, sponsored by an outside company from Fort Erie.
At that time flat screens of any kind did not exist. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) were the only kind of TV displays. In fact, time share computer class rooms at University of Waterloo had no CRT displays. Instead, they used only teletype printer terminals (with 1 kb workspace!), connected to the IBM 360 mainframe computer. (N.B.: In those days the only portable data storage were punch cards).
I also vividly remember meeting a visiting lecturer from BC, Dr. David Suzuki, who talked about his research on fast reproducing fruit flies. He was in his mid 30s, had long hippie hair and was dressed in light brown suede with tassels on his jacket sleeves and jeans and a long beads chain around his neck. He was very outspoken about his work and the new trends in genetic engineering. A few years later he became the CBC host of the long running series “The Nature of Things”.
My work at U. of W. was poorly paid, but it was most enjoyable to work at the campus. I spent every free minute of my time in the computer building, learning FORTRAN, BASIC, and APL. Since at that time there were no spreadsheets (invented much later by the MIT student Dan Briklin as CalcuLedger, renamed into VisiCalc when it went commercial in 1979), I wrote APL programs to evaluate data collected from my semiconductor samples. I was back in my element of pushing the envelope, and I often forgot about eating, sleeping or going home.
However, although I loved my work at U. of W., the pay didn’t cover all my family’s basic needs, so when an employment agency called me with an industrial position at the Product Engineering department of Canadian General Electric, I was sad to accept and move to Toronto.
PHYSICS DEPARTMENT
Dean: Don Brodie, Professor
WRI Director:
Phil Eastman, Professor
Research Team:
Jack Purchase, Team Leader
Terry Schmit, Research Assistant
Zack Bajin, Research Scientist
(joined in Feb.1971)
Project: Flat Screen TV
Sponsored by:
Autotelic Industries
Fort Erie, Ontario
Chair of Board of Directors:
Frank Tagliarino
Buffalo, N.Y.
CEO: Ivan Mara
Buffalo, N.Y.
++++++
SKILLS DEVELOPED AND HONED
semiconductor layer deposition
electronic temperature control
screen printing
electrolytic plating
Al-oxidization for insulating grid
gold contact application
lathe machining and milling of
precision parts
Ne-LASER maintenance
diffusion vacuum pump system
EDM (machining)
micro-forming of SST electrodes
glass blowing
plasma-gas discharge display
cast forming
DLS model with glimmer lights
computerized data analysis
BASIC programming
APL programming
++++++
ACHIEVEMENTS
Electroluminescent Screen:
Photoresist control
of the half-lighting effect
Produced a flat 35 mm
electroluminescent screen
driven by video camera
connected to a
signal amplifier
Patent Application:
Plasma Display with DLS -
Differential Line Switching
UNIVERSITY of WATERLOO - WRI