DEFLECTION CURRENT WAVEFORMS

Figure 18.2 illustrates the required nature of current in deflection coils. As shown there it has a
linear rise in amplitude which will deflect the beam at uniform speed without squeezing or
spreading the picture information. At the end of ramp the current amplitude drops sharply for a
fast retrace or flyback. Zero amplitude on the sawtooth waveform corresponds to the beam at
centre of the screen. The peak-to-peak amplitude of the sawtooth wave determines the amount of
deflection from the centre. The electron beam is at extreme left (or right) of the raster when the
horizontal deflecting sawtooth wave has its positive (or negative) peak. Similarly the beam is at
top and bottom for peak amplitudes of the vertical deflection sawtooth wave. The sawtooth
waveforms can be positive or negative going, depending on the direction of windings on the
yoke for deflecting the beam from left to right and top to bottom. In both cases (Fig. 18.2) the
trace includes linear rise from start at point 1 to the end at point 2, which is the start of retrace
finishing at point 3 for a complete sawtooth cycle.

Driving Voltage Waveform

The current which flows into the horizontal and vertical deflecting coils must have a sawtooth
waveform to obtain linear deflection of the beam during trace periods. However, because of
inductive nature of the deflecting coils, a modified sawtooth voltage must be applied across the
coils to achieve a sawtooth current through them. To understand this fully, consider the
equivalent circuit of a deflecting coil (Fig. 18.3) consisting of a resistance R in series with a pure
inductance L, where R includes the effect of driving source (internal) resistance. The voltage
drops across R and L for a sawtooth current, when added together would give the voltage
waveform that must be applied across the coil. The voltage drop across R (Fig. 18.3 (a)) has the
same sawtooth waveform as that of the current that flows through it. However, the voltage across
L depends on the rate of change of current and the magnitude of inductance. A faster change in
iL, produces more self induced voltage vL. Furthermore, for a constant rate of change in iL, the
value of vL is constant. As a result, vL in Fig. 18.3 (b) is at a
relatively low level during trace time, but because of fast drop in iL during the retrace period, a
sharp voltage peak or spike appears across the coil. The polarity of the flyback pulse is opposite
to the trace voltage, because iL is then decreasing instead of increasing. Therefore, a sawtooth
current in L produces a rectangular voltage. This means, that to produce a sawtooth current in an
inductor, a rectangular voltage should be applied across it. When the voltage drops across R and
L are added together, the result (see Fig. 18.3 (c)) is a trapezoidal waveform. Thus to produce a
sawtooth current in a circuit having R and L in series, which in the case under consideration
represents a deflection coil, a trapezoidal voltage must be applied across it. Note that for a
negative going sawtooth current, the resulting trapezoid will naturally have an inverted polarity
as illustrated in Fig. 18.4.

As explained above, for linear deflection, a trapezoidal voltage wave is necessary across the
vertical deflecting coils. However, the resulting voltage waveform for the horizontal yoke will
look closer to a rectangular waveshape, because voltage across the inductor overrides
significantly the voltage across the resistance on account of higher rate of rise and fall of coil
current.