A unique video pickup tube designed by Sony, it was an evolution of Hitachi's Saticon video tube. Here is the forward view of the target area.

Saticons are a charge-storage type vidicon, with an imaging target made of selenium-arsenic-tellurium (S-A-Ticon). It originally was designed in 1973 by Hitachi, in cooperation with NHK of Japan, to provide a cheaper, more reliable tube than the incumbent lead-oxide Plumbicon. Plumbicons, a product of N.V Philips of the Netherlands, was the standard broadcast video tube from its introduction in 1965 all the way to the early 1990's, but were expensive, and somewhat difficult to manufacture. Saticons use a glass target that's a dark purple color, virtually eliminating halation that Plumbicons suffered from. They have very low lag, and higher resolution than Plumbicons on average, independent of target thickness, but tend to suffer more from burn-in/memory effects. Saticon II, III, and IV types, with improvements in manufacturing of the targets, reduced burn-in damage. Later Saticons, like Plumbicons, evolved into Diode-Gun and LOC Diode-Gun Saticons, offering higher resolutions and comet-tail suppression.

In the early 1980's, Sony developed "mixed-field" technology. Traditional Saticons were magnetically deflected and focused, as were Plumbicons. On a Mixed-Field Saticon, the tube's electron beam was electrostatically deflected, and magnetically focused. In theory, this offered less distortion and sharper registration, and the electrodes for the deflection coils were integral to the glass envelope of the tube, as seen with the zigzag pattern on the glass. Sony also developed Mixed-Field Plumbicons for their BVP-30, and BVP-360 studio cameras.

This tube came from a former broadcast engineer who donated it to me. It came from a Sony BVP-3, the first successful, dockable "camcorder", which was introduced in 1983. I believe the BVP-3's used MF Diode-Gun Saticons, but this may be a standard trielectrode gun~