19) 250K-pixel CCD attached to the Gravestone
Picture: 250K-pixel CCD attached to the gravestone of Iwama (Provided by Sony)
In 1973, Sony selected CCD as one of the five big R&D projects,
and started the development, targeting at a small CCD camera. Iwama commanded,
“Develop a small CCD camera at the cost of under 50,000 yen within five years”.
He also inspired the development team by saying, “The competitor is not an
electronics manufacture, but Eastman Kodak”.
Once they started, the development work was much harder than expected, with
the problems of its sensitivity, resolution and so on. The competitors including
the CCD inventor Bell Laboratories dropped out from the race. On the other
hand, Sony solved problems one by one, including the development of its proprietary
semiconductor crystal manufacturing technology “MCZ method”. They eventually
completed the 120,000-pixel device in 1978. This chip was used in the camera
“XC-1”, which was installed in the ANA jumbo jets to show images of the taking-off
of the airplane.
The problem was, however, an extremely low production yield. Only one out
of several hundred devices passed the test. But Sony solved the problem after
the desparate efforts, and finally started the mass production at Sony Kokubu
Semiconductor Inc. in 1983. Two years later, in January 1985, Sony started
selling 8mm VCR “CCD-V8” with a built-in still camera using 250K-pixel CCD.
Iwama’s original intention was accomplished, but he unfortunately passed away
in August 1982 without seeing this product. The engineers involved in the
development attached a 250K-pixel CCD chip to the Iwama’s gravestone.