453

The Tektronix 453 is a portable 50MHz dual-trace oscilloscope made from the mid-1960's to the mid-1970's. Initial versions had Nuvistor tubes in the front end as cathode-follower voltage buffers. Later versions used FETs for the same purpose. The vertical amplifier that drives the CRT deflection plates is a cascoded differential amplifier made of NPN transistors. Triggering uses tunnel diodes, with a trigger preamplifier preceding that actual trigger circuit. The 453 is almost entirely solid-state even in its first version. The only tubes other than the CRT are the 5642 HV rectifiers and a few 8393 Nuvistor triode tubes. Each horizontal deflection plate is driven by a common-emitter amplifier with feedback. The total CRT acceleration is 10kV. The CRT cathode voltage is -2kV and the CRT anode voltage is +8kV. A Tektronix 453 consumes 100 watts power and weighs 29 pounds (13.2kg).