Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, an electron

tube,[1][2][3] or valve (British usage) or, colloquially, a
tube (North America),[4] is a device that controls
electric current flow in a high vacuum between
electrodes to which an electric potential difference has
been applied.

The type known as a thermionic tube or thermionic

Later thermionic vacuum tubes, mostly miniature
valve uses the phenomenon of thermionic emission of
style, some with top cap anode connections for
electrons from a heated cathode and is used for a higher voltages
number of fundamental electronic functions such as
signal amplification and current rectification.

Non-thermionic types, such as a vacuum phototube however, achieve electron emission through the
photoelectric effect, and are used for such as the detection of light levels. In both types, the electrons are
accelerated from the cathode to the anode by the electric field in the tube.

The simplest vacuum tube, the diode invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming, contains only a heated
electron-emitting cathode and an anode. Electrons can only flow in one direction through the device—
from the cathode to the anode. Adding one or more control grids within the tube allows the current
between the cathode and anode to be controlled by the voltage on the grid or grids.[5] These devices
became a key component of electronic circuits for the first half of the twentieth century. They were
crucial to the development of radio, television, radar, sound recording and reproduction, long-distance
telephone networks, and analogue and early digital computers. Although some applications had used
earlier technologies such as the spark gap transmitter for radio or mechanical computers for computing, it
was the invention of the thermionic vacuum tube that made these technologies widespread and practical,
and created the discipline of electronics.[6]

In the 1940s the invention of semiconductor devices made it

possible to produce solid-state devices, which are smaller, more
efficient, reliable and durable, and cheaper than thermionic tubes.
From the mid-1960s, thermionic tubes were then being replaced
with the transistor. However, the cathode-ray tube (CRT)
remained the basis for television monitors and oscilloscopes until
the early 21st century. Thermionic tubes still have some
applications, such as the magnetron used in microwave ovens,
certain high-frequency amplifiers, and amplifiers that audio
enthusiasts prefer for their tube sound.

Not all electronic circuit valves/electron tubes are vacuum tubes.

Gas-filled tubes are similar devices, but containing a gas, typically at low pressure, which exploit
phenomena related to electric discharge in gases, usually without a heater.
Contents
Classifications
Description
History and development
Diodes
Triodes
Tetrodes and pentodes
Multifunction and multisection tubes
Computers - Buckinghamshire
Beam power tubes
Gas-filled tubes
Miniature tubes
Improvements in construction and performance
Indirectly heated cathodes
Use in electronic computers
Colossus
Whirlwind and "special-quality" tubes
Heat generation and cooling
Tube packages
Names
Special-purpose tubes
Powering the tube
Batteries
AC power
Reliability
Vacuum
Transmitting tubes
Receiving tubes
Failure modes
Catastrophic failures
Degenerative failures
Other failures
Testing
Other vacuum tube devices
Cathode ray tubes
Electron multipliers
Vacuum tubes in the 21st century
Niche applications
Audiophiles
Displays
Cathode ray tube
Vacuum fluorescent display
Vacuum tubes using field electron emitters
 Charactiristics
Space charge of a vacuum tube
V-I characteristic of vacuum tube
Size of electrostatic field
Patents
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Classifications
One classification of thermionic vacuum tubes is by the number
of active electrodes. A device with two active elements is a diode,
usually used for rectification. Devices with three elements are
triodes used for amplification and switching. Additional
electrodes create tetrodes, pentodes, and so forth, which have
multiple additional functions made possible by the additional
controllable electrodes.

Other classifications are:

Audio Vacuum tubes in Radio
by frequency range (audio, radio, VHF, UHF,
microwave)
by power rating (small-signal, audio power, high-power
radio transmitting)
by cathode/filament type (indirectly heated, directly
heated) and Warm-up time (including "bright-emitter" or
"dull-emitter")
by characteristic curves design (e.g., sharp- versus
remote-cutoff in some pentodes)
by application (receiving tubes, transmitting tubes,
amplifying or switching, rectification, mixing) Tube amplifier
specialized parameters (long life, very low microphonic
sensitivity and low-noise audio amplification,
rugged/military versions)
specialized functions (light or radiation detectors, video imaging tubes)
tubes used to display information (Nixie tubes, "magic eye" tubes, Vacuum fluorescent
displays, CRTs)
Tubes have different functions, such as cathode ray tubes which create a beam of electrons for display
purposes (such as the television picture tube) in addition to more specialized functions such as electron
microscopy and electron beam lithography. X-ray tubes are also vacuum tubes. Phototubes and
photomultipliers rely on electron flow through a vacuum, though in those cases electron emission from
the cathode depends on energy from photons rather than thermionic emission. Since these sorts of
"vacuum tubes" have functions other than electronic amplification and rectification they are described in
their own articles.
Description
A vacuum tube consists of two
or more electrodes in a vacuum
inside an airtight envelope. Most
tubes have glass envelopes with
a glass-to-metal seal based on
kovar sealable borosilicate
glasses, though ceramic and
metal envelopes (atop insulating
bases) have been used. The
electrodes are attached to leads
which pass through the envelope
via an airtight seal. Most
vacuum tubes have a limited
lifetime, due to the filament or
heater burning out or other Diode: electrons from the hot Triode: voltage applied to the grid
failure modes, so they are made cathode flow towards the positive controls plate (anode) current.
as replaceable units; the anode, but not vice versa

electrode leads connect to pins

on the tube's base which plug
into a tube socket. Tubes were a frequent cause of failure in electronic equipment, and consumers were
expected to be able to replace tubes themselves. In addition to the base terminals, some tubes had an
electrode terminating at a top cap. The principal reason for doing this was to avoid leakage resistance
through the tube base, particularly for the high impedance grid input.[7][8] The bases were commonly
made with phenolic insulation which performs poorly as an insulator in humid conditions. Other reasons
for using a top cap include improving stability by reducing grid-to-anode capacitance,[9] improved high-
frequency performance, keeping a very high plate voltage away from lower voltages, and
accommodating one more electrode than allowed by the base. There was even an occasional design that
had two top cap connections.

The earliest vacuum tubes evolved from incandescent light bulbs, containing a filament sealed in an
evacuated glass envelope. When hot, the filament releases electrons into the vacuum, a process called
thermionic emission, originally known as the "Edison Effect". A second electrode, the anode or plate,
will attract those electrons if it is at a more positive voltage. The result is a net flow of electrons from the
filament to plate. However, electrons cannot flow in the reverse direction because the plate is not heated
and does not emit electrons. The filament (cathode) has a dual function: it emits electrons when heated;
and, together with the plate, it creates an electric field due to the potential difference between them. Such
a tube with only two electrodes is termed a diode, and is used for rectification. Since current can only
pass in one direction, such a diode (or rectifier) will convert alternating current (AC) to pulsating DC.
Diodes can therefore be used in a DC power supply, as a demodulator of amplitude modulated (AM)
radio signals and for similar functions.

Early tubes used the filament as the cathode; this is called a "directly heated" tube. Most modern tubes
are "indirectly heated" by a "heater" element inside a metal tube that is the cathode. The heater is
electrically isolated from the surrounding cathode and simply serves to heat the cathode sufficiently for
thermionic emission of electrons. The electrical isolation allows all the tubes' heaters to be supplied from
a common circuit (which can be AC without inducing hum) while allowing the cathodes in different
tubes to operate at different voltages. H. J. Round invented the indirectly heated tube around 1913.[10]

The filaments require constant and often considerable power, even when amplifying signals at the
microwatt level. Power is also dissipated when the electrons from the cathode slam into the anode (plate)
and heat it; this can occur even in an idle amplifier due to quiescent currents necessary to ensure linearity
and low distortion. In a power amplifier, this heating can be considerable and can destroy the tube if
driven beyond its safe limits. Since the tube contains a vacuum, the anodes in most small and medium
power tubes are cooled by radiation through the glass envelope. In some special high power applications,
the anode forms part of the vacuum envelope to conduct heat to an external heat sink, usually cooled by a
blower, or water-jacket.

Klystrons and magnetrons often operate their anodes (called collectors in klystrons) at ground potential
to facilitate cooling, particularly with water, without high-voltage insulation. These tubes instead operate
with high negative voltages on the filament and cathode.

Except for diodes, additional electrodes are positioned between the cathode and the plate (anode). These
electrodes are referred to as grids as they are not solid electrodes but sparse elements through which
electrons can pass on their way to the plate. The vacuum tube is then known as a triode, tetrode, pentode,
etc., depending on the number of grids. A triode has three electrodes: the anode, cathode, and one grid,
and so on. The first grid, known as the control grid, (and sometimes other grids) transforms the diode into
a voltage-controlled device: the voltage applied to the control grid affects the current between the cathode
and the plate. When held negative with respect to the cathode, the control grid creates an electric field
which repels electrons emitted by the cathode, thus reducing or even stopping the current between
cathode and anode. As long as the control grid is negative relative to the cathode, essentially no current
flows into it, yet a change of several volts on the control grid is sufficient to make a large difference in
the plate current, possibly changing the output by hundreds of volts (depending on the circuit). The solid-
state device which operates most like the pentode tube is the junction field-effect transistor (JFET),
although vacuum tubes typically operate at over a hundred volts, unlike most semiconductors in most
applications.

History and development

The 19th century saw increasing research with evacuated tubes, such as the
Geissler and Crookes tubes. The many scientists and inventors who experimented
with such tubes include Thomas Edison, Eugen Goldstein, Nikola Tesla, and
Johann Wilhelm Hittorf. With the exception of early light bulbs, such tubes were
only used in scientific research or as novelties. The groundwork laid by these
scientists and inventors, however, was critical to the development of subsequent
vacuum tube technology.

Although thermionic emission was originally reported in 1873 by Frederick

Guthrie,[11] it was Thomas Edison's apparently independent discovery of the
phenomenon in 1883 that became well known. Although Edison was aware of the
One of Edison's
unidirectional property of current flow between the filament and the anode, his
experimental
interest (and patent[12]) concentrated on the sensitivity of the anode current to the bulbs
current through the filament (and thus filament temperature). Little practical use
was ever made of this property (however early radios often implemented volume controls through
varying the filament current of amplifying tubes). It was only years later that John Ambrose Fleming
utilized the rectifying property of the diode tube to detect (demodulate) radio signals, a substantial
improvement on the early cat's-whisker detector already used for rectification.

However amplification by a vacuum tube became practical only with Lee De Forest's 1907 invention of
the three-terminal "audion" tube, a crude form of what was to become the triode.[13] Being essentially the
first electronic amplifier,[14] such tubes were instrumental in long-distance telephony (such as the first
coast-to-coast telephone line in the US) and public address systems, and introduced a far superior and
versatile technology for use in radio transmitters and receivers. The electronics revolution of the 20th
century arguably began with the invention of the triode vacuum tube.

Diodes
The English physicist John Ambrose Fleming worked as an
engineering consultant for firms including Edison Swan,[15]
Edison Telephone and the Marconi Company. In 1904, as a result
of experiments conducted on Edison effect bulbs imported from
the United States, he developed a device he called an "oscillation
valve" (because it passes current in only one direction). The
heated filament, was capable of thermionic emission of electrons
that would flow to the plate (or anode) when it was at a positive Fleming's first diodes
voltage with respect to the heated cathode. Electrons, however,
could not pass in the reverse direction because the plate was not
heated and thus not capable of thermionic emission of electrons.

Later known as the Fleming valve, it could be used as a rectifier of alternating current and as a radio
wave detector. This greatly improved the crystal set which rectified the radio signal using an early solid-
state diode based on a crystal and a so-called cat's whisker, an adjustable point contact. Unlike modern
semiconductors, such a diode required painstaking adjustment of the contact to the crystal in order for it
to rectify.

The tube was relatively immune to vibration, and thus vastly superior on shipboard duty, particularly for
navy ships with the shock of weapon fire commonly knocking the sensitive but delicate galena off its
sensitive point (the tube was in general no more sensitive as a radio detector, but was adjustment free).
The diode tube was a reliable alternative for detecting radio signals.

As electronic engineering advanced, notably during World War II, this function of a diode came to be
considered as one type of demodulation. While firmly established by history, the term "detector" is not of
itself descriptive, and should be considered outdated.

Higher power diode tubes or power rectifiers found their way into power supply applications until they
were eventually replaced first by selenium, and later, by silicon rectifiers in the 1960s.

Triodes
Originally, the only use for tubes in radio circuits was for rectification, not amplification. In 1906, Robert
von Lieben filed for a patent[16] for a cathode ray tube which included magnetic deflection. This could be
used for amplifying audio signals and was intended for use in telephony equipment. He would later help
refine the triode vacuum tube.

However, Lee De Forest is credited with inventing the triode tube

in 1907 while experimenting to improve his original (diode)
Audion. By placing an additional electrode between the filament
(cathode) and plate (anode), he discovered the ability of the
resulting device to amplify signals. As the voltage applied to the
control grid (or simply "grid") was lowered from the cathode's
voltage to somewhat more negative voltages, the amount of The first triode, the De Forest
current from the filament to the plate would be reduced. Audion, invented in 1906

The negative electrostatic field created by the grid in the vicinity

of the cathode would inhibit passage of emitted electrons and
reduce the current to the plate. Thus, a few volt difference at the
grid would make a large change in the plate current and could
lead to a much larger voltage change at the plate; the result was
voltage and power amplification. In 1908, De Forest was granted
a patent (U.S. Patent 879,532 (https://www.google.com/patents/U
S879532)) for such a three-electrode version of his original
Audion for use as an electronic amplifier in radio
Triodes as they evolved over 40
communications. This eventually became known as the triode.
years of tube manufacture, from the
RE16 in 1918 to a 1960s era
De Forest's original device was made with conventional vacuum
miniature tube
technology. The vacuum was not a "hard vacuum" but rather left
a very small amount of residual gas. The physics behind the
device's operation was also not settled. The residual gas would cause a
blue glow (visible ionization) when the plate voltage was high (above
about 60 volts). In 1912, De Forest brought the Audion to Harold Arnold
in AT&T's engineering department. Arnold recommended that AT&T
purchase the patent, and AT&T followed his recommendation. Arnold
developed high-vacuum tubes which were tested in the summer of 1913
on AT&T's long distance network.[17] The high-vacuum tubes could
operate at high plate voltages without a blue glow.

Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt significantly improved on the original Triode symbol. From top to
triode design in 1914, while working on his sound-on-film process in bottom: plate (anode),
control grid, cathode, heater
Berlin, Germany. Tigerstedt's innovation was to make the electrodes
(filament)
concentric cylinders with the cathode at the centre, thus greatly
increasing the collection of emitted electrons at the anode.[18]

Irving Langmuir at the General Electric research laboratory (Schenectady, New York) had improved
Wolfgang Gaede's high-vacuum diffusion pump and used it to settle the question of thermionic emission
and conduction in a vacuum. Consequently, General Electric started producing hard vacuum triodes
(which were branded Pliotrons) in 1915.[19] Langmuir patented the hard vacuum triode, but De Forest
and AT&T successfully asserted priority and invalidated the patent.

Pliotrons were closely followed by the French type 'TM' and later the English type 'R' which were in
widespread use by the allied military by 1916. Historically, vacuum levels in production vacuum tubes
typically ranged from 10 µPa down to 10 nPa.[20]
The triode and its derivatives (tetrodes and pentodes) are
transconductance devices, in which the controlling signal applied to the
grid is a voltage, and the resulting amplified signal appearing at the
anode is a current. Compare this to the behavior of the bipolar junction
transistor, in which the controlling signal is a current and the output is
also a current.

For vacuum tubes, transconductance or mutual conductance (gm) is

defined as the change in the plate(anode)/cathode current divided by the
corresponding change in the grid to cathode voltage, with a constant
plate(anode) to cathode voltage. Typical values of gm for a small-signal
vacuum tube are 1 to 10 millisiemens. It is one of the three 'constants' of
a vacuum tube, the other two being its gain μ and plate resistance Rp or
Ra. The Van der Bijl equation defines their relationship as follows:

The non-linear operating characteristic of the triode caused early tube

audio amplifiers to exhibit harmonic distortion at low volumes. Plotting General Electric Company
Pliotron, Science History
plate current as a function of applied grid voltage, it was seen that there
Institute
was a range of grid voltages for which the transfer characteristics were
approximately linear.

To use this range, a negative bias voltage had to be applied to the grid to position the DC operating point
in the linear region. This was called the idle condition, and the plate current at this point the "idle
current". The controlling voltage was superimposed onto the bias voltage, resulting in a linear variation
of plate current in response to positive and negative variation of the input voltage around that point.

This concept is called grid bias. Many early radio sets had a third battery called the "C battery"
(unrelated to the present-day C cell, for which the letter denotes its size and shape). The C battery's
positive terminal was connected to the cathode of the tubes (or "ground" in most circuits) and whose
negative terminal supplied this bias voltage to the grids of the tubes.

Later circuits, after tubes were made with heaters isolated from their cathodes, used cathode biasing,
avoiding the need for a separate negative power supply. For cathode biasing, a relatively low-value
resistor is connected between the cathode and ground. This makes the cathode positive with respect to the
grid, which is at ground potential for DC.

However C batteries continued to be included in some equipment even when the "A" and "B" batteries
had been replaced by power from the AC mains. That was possible because there was essentially no
current draw on these batteries; they could thus last for many years (often longer than all the tubes)
without requiring replacement.

When triodes were first used in radio transmitters and receivers, it was found that tuned amplification
stages had a tendency to oscillate unless their gain was very limited. This was due to the parasitic
capacitance between the plate (the amplifier's output) and the control grid (the amplifier's input), known
as the Miller capacitance.
Eventually the technique of neutralization was developed whereby the RF transformer connected to the
plate (anode) would include an additional winding in the opposite phase. This winding would be
connected back to the grid through a small capacitor, and when properly adjusted would cancel the Miller
capacitance. This technique was employed and led to the success of the Neutrodyne radio during the
1920s. However, neutralization required careful adjustment and proved unsatisfactory when used over a
wide range of frequencies.

Tetrodes and pentodes

To combat the stability problems and limited voltage gain due to the Miller
effect, the physicist Walter H. Schottky invented the tetrode tube in 1919.[21]
He showed that the addition of a second grid, located between the control
grid and the plate (anode), known as the screen grid, could solve these
problems. ("Screen" in this case refers to electrical "screening" or shielding,
not physical construction: all "grid" electrodes in between the cathode and
plate are "screens" of some sort rather than solid electrodes since they must
allow for the passage of electrons directly from the cathode to the plate). A
Tetrode symbol. From
positive voltage slightly lower than the plate (anode) voltage was applied to
top to bottom: plate
it, and was bypassed (for high frequencies) to ground with a capacitor. This (anode), screen grid,
arrangement decoupled the anode and the control grid, essentially control grid, cathode,
eliminating the Miller capacitance and its associated problems. The screen's heater (filament)
constant voltage also reduced the anode voltage's influence on the space
charge. Where the ratio of plate voltage control of plate current to grid
control of the plate current (amplification factor) commonly ranges from below ten to perhaps 100,
tetrode amplification factors readily exceeded 500. Consequently, higher voltage gains from a single tube
became possible, reducing the number of tubes required in many circuits. This two-grid tube is called a
tetrode, meaning four active electrodes, and was common by 1926.

However, the tetrode had one new problem. In any tube, electrons
strike the anode with sufficient energy to cause the emission of
electrons from its surface. In a triode this so-called secondary
emission of electrons is not important since they are simply re-
captured by the more positive anode (plate). But in a tetrode they
can be captured by the screen grid (thus also acting as an anode)
since it is also at a high voltage, thus robbing them from the plate
current and reducing the amplification of the device. Since
secondary electrons can outnumber the primary electrons, in the
worst case, particularly as the plate voltage dips below the screen
voltage, the plate current can decrease with increasing plate
voltage. This is the so-called "tetrode kink" and is an example of
negative resistance which can itself cause instability.[22] The
otherwise undesirable negative resistance was exploited to At certain values of plate voltage and
produce a simple oscillator circuit only requiring connection of current, the tetrode characteristic
the plate to a resonant LC circuit to oscillate; this was effective curves are kinked due to secondary
over a wide frequency range. The so-called dynatron oscillator emission.
thus operated on the same principle of negative resistance as the
tunnel diode oscillator many years later. Another undesirable
consequence of secondary emission is that in extreme cases enough charge can flow to the screen grid to
overheat and destroy it. Later tetrodes had anodes treated to reduce secondary emission; earlier ones such
as the type 77 sharp-cutoff pentode connected as a tetrode made better dynatrons.

The solution was to add another grid between the screen grid and the main anode, called the suppressor
grid (since it suppressed secondary emission current toward the screen grid). This grid was held at the
cathode (or "ground") voltage and its negative voltage (relative to the anode) electrostatically repelled
secondary electrons so that they would be collected by the anode after all. This three-grid tube is called a
pentode, meaning five electrodes. The pentode was invented in 1926 by Bernard D. H. Tellegen[23] and
became generally favored over the simple tetrode. Pentodes are made in two classes: those with the
suppressor grid wired internally to the cathode (e.g. EL84/6BQ5) and those with the suppressor grid
wired to a separate pin for user access (e.g. 803, 837). An alternative solution for power applications is
the beam tetrode or "beam power tube", discussed below.

Multifunction and multisection tubes

Superheterodyne receivers require a local oscillator and mixer, combined
in the function of a single pentagrid converter tube. Various alternatives
such as using a combination of a triode with a hexode and even an octode
have been used for this purpose. The additional grids include control grids
(at a low potential) and screen grids (at a high voltage). Many designs use
such a screen grid as an additional anode to provide feedback for the
oscillator function, whose current adds to that of the incoming radio
frequency signal. The pentagrid converter thus became widely used in AM
receivers, including the miniature tube version of the "All American Five".
Octodes, such as the 7A8, were rarely used in the United States, but much
more common in Europe, particularly in battery operated radios where the
lower power consumption was an advantage.
The pentagrid converter
To further reduce the cost and complexity of radio equipment, two separate
contains five grids
structures (triode and pentode for instance) can be combined in the bulb of between the cathode and
a single multisection tube. An early example is the Loewe 3NF. This 1920s the plate (anode).
device has three triodes in a single glass envelope together with all the
fixed capacitors and resistors required to make a complete radio receiver.
As the Loewe set had only one tube socket, it was able to substantially undercut the competition, since, in
Germany, state tax was levied by the number of sockets. However, reliability was compromised, and
production costs for the tube were much greater. In a sense, these were akin to integrated circuits. In the
United States, Cleartron briefly produced the "Multivalve" triple triode for use in the Emerson Baby
Grand receiver. This Emerson set also has a single tube socket, but because it uses a four-pin base, the
additional element connections are made on a "mezzanine" platform at the top of the tube base.

By 1940 multisection tubes had become commonplace. There were constraints, however, due to patents
and other licensing considerations (see British Valve Association). Constraints due to the number of
external pins (leads) often forced the functions to share some of those external connections such as their
cathode connections (in addition to the heater connection). The RCA Type 55 is a double diode triode
used as a detector, automatic gain control rectifier and audio preamplifier in early AC powered radios.
These sets often include the 53 Dual Triode Audio Output. Another early type of multi-section tube, the
6SN7, is a "dual triode" which performs the functions of two triode tubes, while taking up half as much
space and costing less. The 12AX7 is a dual "high mu" (high voltage gain[24][25][26]) triode in a miniature
enclosure, and became widely used in audio signal amplifiers, instruments, and guitar amplifiers.

The introduction of the miniature tube base (see below) which can have 9 pins, more than previously
available, allowed other multi-section tubes to be introduced, such as the 6GH8/ECF82 triode-pentode,
quite popular in television receivers. The desire to include even more functions in one envelope resulted
in the General Electric Compactron which has 12 pins. A typical example, the 6AG11, contains two
triodes and two diodes.

Some otherwise conventional tubes do not fall into standard categories; the 6AR8, 6JH8 and 6ME8 have
several common grids, followed by a pair of beam deflection electrodes which deflected the current
towards either of two anodes. They were sometimes known as the 'sheet beam' tubes, and used in some
color TV sets for color demodulation. The similar 7360 was popular as a balanced SSB (de)modulator.

Beam power tubes

The beam power tube is usually a tetrode with the addition of beam-forming
electrodes, which take the place of the suppressor grid. These angled plates
(not to be confused with the anode) focus the electron stream onto certain
spots on the anode which can withstand the heat generated by the impact of
massive numbers of electrons, while also providing pentode behavior. The
positioning of the elements in a beam power tube uses a design called
"critical-distance geometry", which minimizes the "tetrode kink", plate to
control grid capacitance, screen grid current, and secondary emission from
the anode, thus increasing power conversion efficiency. The control grid and 6L6 tubes in glass
screen grid are also wound with the same pitch, or number of wires per inch. envelopes
The windings of the control and screen grid wires are aligned such that the
screen grid is in the "shadow" of the control grid. The two grids are
positioned so that the control grid creates "sheets" of electrons which pass between the screen-grid wires.

Aligning the grid wires also helps to reduce screen current, which represents wasted energy. This design
helps to overcome some of the practical barriers to designing high-power, high-efficiency power tubes.
EMI engineers Cabot Bull and Sidney Rodda developed the design which became the 6L6, the first
popular beam power tube, introduced by RCA in 1936 and later corresponding tubes in Europe the
KT66, KT77 and KT88 made by the Marconi-Osram Valve subsidiary of GEC (the KT standing for
"Kinkless Tetrode").

"Pentode operation" of beam power tubes is often described in manufacturers' handbooks and data sheets,
resulting in some confusion in terminology. While they are not strictly pentodes, their overall electrical
behavior is similar.

Variations of the 6L6 design are still widely used in tube guitar amplifiers, making it one of the longest-
lived electronic device families in history. Similar design strategies are used in the construction of large
ceramic power tetrodes used in radio transmitters.

Beam power tubes can be connected as triodes for improved audio tonal quality but in triode mode
deliver significantly reduced power output.
Gas-filled tubes
Gas-filled tubes such as discharge tubes and cold cathode tubes are not hard vacuum tubes, though are
always filled with gas at less than sea-level atmospheric pressure. Types such as the voltage-regulator
tube and thyratron resemble hard vacuum tubes and fit in sockets designed for vacuum tubes. Their
distinctive orange, red, or purple glow during operation indicates the presence of gas; electrons flowing
in a vacuum do not produce light within that region. These types may still be referred to as "electron
tubes" as they do perform electronic functions. High-power rectifiers use mercury vapor to achieve a
lower forward voltage drop than high-vacuum tubes.

Miniature tubes
Early tubes used a metal or glass envelope atop an insulating bakelite base.
In 1938 a technique was developed to use an all-glass construction[27] with Subminiature CV4501
the pins fused in the glass base of the envelope. This was used in the design tube (SQ version of
of a much smaller tube outline, known as the miniature tube, having 7 or 9 EF72), 35 mm long x
10 mm diameter
pins. Making tubes smaller reduced the voltage where they could safely
(excluding leads)
operate, and also reduced the power dissipation of the filament. Miniature
tubes became predominant in consumer applications such as radio receivers
and hi-fi amplifiers. However the larger older styles continued to be used especially as higher power
rectifiers, in higher power audio output stages and as transmitting tubes.

Subminiature tubes with a size roughly that of half a cigarette were used in
hearing-aid amplifiers. These tubes did not have pins plugging into a socket
but were soldered in place. The "acorn tube" (named due to its shape) was
also very small, as was the metal-cased RCA nuvistor from 1959, about the
size of a thimble. The nuvistor was developed to compete with the early
transistors and operated at higher frequencies than those early transistors
could. The small size supported especially high-frequency operation;
nuvistors were used in aircraft radio transceivers, UHF television tuners, and
some HiFi FM radio tuners (Sansui 500A) until replaced by high-frequency
capable transistors.

Improvements in construction and performance RCA 6DS4 "Nuvistor"

The earliest vacuum tubes strongly resembled incandescent light bulbs and triode, circa 20 mm high
by 11 mm diameter
were made by lamp manufacturers, who had the equipment needed to
manufacture glass envelopes and the vacuum pumps required to evacuate
the enclosures. De Forest used Heinrich Geissler's mercury displacement
pump, which left behind a partial vacuum. The development of the diffusion pump in 1915 and
improvement by Irving Langmuir led to the development of high-vacuum tubes. After World War I,
specialized manufacturers using more economical construction methods were set up to fill the growing
demand for broadcast receivers. Bare tungsten filaments operated at a temperature of around 2200 °C.
The development of oxide-coated filaments in the mid-1920s reduced filament operating temperature to a
dull red heat (around 700 °C), which in turn reduced thermal distortion of the tube structure and allowed
closer spacing of tube elements. This in turn improved tube gain, since the gain of a triode is inversely
proportional to the spacing between grid and cathode. Bare tungsten filaments remain in use in small
transmitting tubes but are brittle and tend to fracture if handled roughly—e.g. in the postal services.
These tubes are best suited to stationary equipment where impact
and vibration is not present. Over time vacuum tubes became
much smaller.

Indirectly heated cathodes

The desire to power electronic equipment using AC mains power
faced a difficulty with respect to the powering of the tubes'
filaments, as these were also the cathode of each tube. Powering
the filaments directly from a power transformer introduced
mains-frequency (50 or 60 Hz) hum into audio stages. The
invention of the "equipotential cathode" reduced this problem, Commercial packaging for vacuum
with the filaments being powered by a balanced AC power tubes used in the latter half of the
transformer winding having a grounded center tap. 20th century including boxes for
individual tubes (bottom right),
A superior solution, and one which allowed each cathode to sleeves for rows of the boxes (left),
"float" at a different voltage, was that of the indirectly heated and bags that smaller tubes would be
put in by a store upon purchase (top
cathode: a cylinder of oxide-coated nickel acted as electron-
right)
emitting cathode, and was electrically isolated from the filament
inside it. Indirectly heated cathodes enable the cathode circuit to
be separated from the heater circuit. The filament, no longer electrically connected to the tube's
electrodes, became simply known as a "heater", and could as well be powered by AC without any
introduction of hum.[28] In the 1930s, indirectly heated cathode tubes became widespread in equipment
using AC power. Directly heated cathode tubes continued to be widely used in battery-powered
equipment as their filaments required considerably less power than the heaters required with indirectly
heated cathodes.

Tubes designed for high gain audio applications may have twisted heater wires to cancel out stray electric
fields, fields that could induce objectionable hum into the program material.

Heaters may be energized with either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC). DC is often used
where low hum is required.

Use in electronic computers

Vacuum tubes used as switches made electronic computing possible for the first time, but the cost and
relatively short mean time to failure of tubes were limiting factors.[29] "The common wisdom was that
valves—which, like light bulbs, contained a hot glowing filament—could never be used satisfactorily in
large numbers, for they were unreliable, and in a large installation too many would fail in too short a
time".[30] Tommy Flowers, who later designed Colossus, "discovered that, so long as valves were
switched on and left on, they could operate reliably for very long periods, especially if their 'heaters' were
run on a reduced current".[30] In 1934 Flowers built a successful experimental installation using over
3,000 tubes in small independent modules; when a tube failed, it was possible to switch off one module
and keep the others going, thereby reducing the risk of another tube failure being caused; this installation
was accepted by the Post Office (who operated telephone exchanges). Flowers was also a pioneer of
using tubes as very fast (compared to electromechanical devices) electronic switches. Later work
confirmed that tube unreliability was not as serious an issue as generally believed; the 1946 ENIAC, with
over 17,000 tubes, had a tube failure (which took 15 minutes to locate) on average every two days. The
quality of the tubes was a factor, and the diversion of
skilled people during the Second World War lowered
the general quality of tubes.[31] During the war
Colossus was instrumental in breaking German
codes. After the war, development continued with
tube-based computers including, military computers
ENIAC and Whirlwind, the Ferranti Mark 1 (the first
commercially available electronic computer), and
UNIVAC I, also available commercially.

Colossus
Flowers's Colossus and its successor Colossus Mk2
were built by the British during World War II to
substantially speed up the task of breaking the The 1946 ENIAC computer used 17,468 vacuum
German high level Lorenz encryption. Using about tubes and consumed 150 kW of power
1,500 vacuum tubes (2,400 for Mk2), Colossus
replaced an earlier machine based on relay and
switch logic (the Heath Robinson). Colossus was able to break in a matter of hours messages that had
previously taken several weeks; it was also much more reliable.[30] Colossus was the first use of vacuum
tubes working in concert on such a large scale for a single machine.[30]

Once Colossus was built and installed, it ran continuously, powered by dual redundant diesel generators,
the wartime mains supply being considered too unreliable. The only time it was switched off was for
conversion to Mk2, which added more tubes. Another nine Colossus Mk2s were built. Each Mk2
consumed 15 kilowatts; most of the power was for the tube heaters.

A Colossus reconstruction was switched on in 1996; it was upgraded to Mk2 configuration in 2004; it
found the key for a wartime German ciphertext in 2007.[32]

Whirlwind and "special-quality" tubes

To meet the reliability requirements of the 1951 US digital computer Whirlwind, "special-quality" tubes
with extended life, and a long-lasting cathode in particular, were produced. The problem of short lifetime
was traced to evaporation of silicon, used in the tungsten alloy to make the heater wire easier to draw.
Elimination of silicon from the heater wire alloy (and more frequent replacement of the wire drawing
dies) allowed production of tubes that were reliable enough for the Whirlwind project. The tubes
developed for Whirlwind were later used in the giant SAGE air-defense computer system. SAGE
computers were dual installations, with one operating, and the other in standby. To locate potential tube
failures in the standby computer, heater voltages were reduced, which caused failures of tubes which
would otherwise fail in service. These computers continued in service years after other tube computers
had been superseded.

High-purity nickel tubing and cathode coatings free of materials that can poison emission (such as
silicates and aluminum) also contribute to long cathode life. The first such "computer tube" was
Sylvania's 7AK7 of 1948. Computers were the first tube devices to run tubes at cutoff (enough negative
grid voltage to make them cease conduction) for quite-extended periods of time. When their grids
became less negative, they failed to conduct. While hot but non-conductive, an insulating layer ("cathode
interface") developed between the nickel sleeve and the oxide coating. What was described above cured
this problem.

By the late 1950s it was routine for special-quality small-signal tubes to last for hundreds of thousands of
hours, if operated conservatively. This increased reliability also made mid-cable amplifiers in submarine
cables possible.

Heat generation and cooling

A considerable amount of heat is produced when tubes operate, both
from the filament (heater) but also from the stream of electrons
bombarding the plate. In power amplifiers this source of heat will exceed
the power due to cathode heating. A few types of tube permit operation
with the anodes at a dull red heat; in other types, red heat indicates severe
overload.

The requirements for heat removal can significantly change the

appearance of high-power vacuum tubes. High power audio amplifiers
and rectifiers required larger envelopes to dissipate heat. Transmitting
tubes could be much larger still.

Heat escapes the device by black-body radiation from the anode (plate)
as infrared radiation, and by convection of air over the tube envelope.[33]
Convection is not possible inside most tubes since the anode is
surrounded by vacuum. The anode (plate) of this
transmitting triode has been
Tubes which generate relatively little heat, such as the 1.4-volt filament designed to dissipate up to
500 W of heat
directly heated tubes designed for use in battery-powered equipment,
often have shiny metal anodes. 1T4, 1R5 and 1A7 are examples. Gas-
filled tubes such as thyratrons may also use a shiny metal anode, since
the gas present inside the tube allows for heat convection from the anode to the glass enclosure.

The anode is often treated to make its surface emit more infrared energy. High-power amplifier tubes are
designed with external anodes which can be cooled by convection, forced air or circulating water. The
water-cooled 80 kg, 1.25 MW 8974 is among the largest commercial tubes available today.

In a water-cooled tube, the anode voltage appears directly on the cooling water surface, thus requiring the
water to be an electrical insulator to prevent high voltage leakage through the cooling water to the
radiator system. Water as usually supplied has ions which conduct electricity; deionized water, a good
insulator, is required. Such systems usually have a built-in water-conductance monitor which will shut
down the high-tension supply if the conductance becomes too high.

The screen grid may also generate considerable heat. Limits to screen grid dissipation, in addition to
plate dissipation, are listed for power devices. If these are exceeded then tube failure is likely.

Tube packages
Most modern tubes have glass envelopes, but metal, fused quartz
(silica) and ceramic have also been used. A first version of the
6L6 used a metal envelope sealed with glass beads, while a glass
disk fused to the metal was used in later versions. Metal and
ceramic are used almost exclusively for power tubes above 2 kW
dissipation. The nuvistor was a modern receiving tube using a
very small metal and ceramic package.

The internal elements of tubes have always been connected to

Metal-cased tubes with octal bases
external circuitry via pins at their base which plug into a socket.
Subminiature tubes were produced using wire leads rather than
sockets, however these were restricted to rather specialized
applications. In addition to the connections at the base of the
tube, many early triodes connected the grid using a metal cap at
the top of the tube; this reduces stray capacitance between the
grid and the plate leads. Tube caps were also used for the plate
(anode) connection, particularly in transmitting tubes and tubes
using a very high plate voltage.

High-power tubes such as transmitting tubes have packages

designed more to enhance heat transfer. In some tubes, the metal
envelope is also the anode. The 4CX1000A is an external anode
tube of this sort. Air is blown through an array of fins attached to
the anode, thus cooling it. Power tubes using this cooling scheme High power GS-9B triode transmitting
tube with heat sink at bottom.
are available up to 150 kW dissipation. Above that level, water or
water-vapor cooling are used. The highest-power tube currently
available is the Eimac 4CM2500KG, a forced water-cooled
power tetrode capable of dissipating 2.5 megawatts.[34] By comparison, the largest power transistor can
only dissipate about 1 kilowatt.

Names
The generic name "[thermionic] valve" used in the UK derives from the unidirectional current flow
allowed by the earliest device, the thermionic diode emitting electrons from a heated filament, by
analogy with a non-return valve in a water pipe.[35] The US names "vacuum tube", "electron tube", and
"thermionic tube" all simply describe a tubular envelope which has been evacuated ("vacuum"), has a
heater, and controls electron flow.

In many cases manufacturers and the military gave tubes designations which said nothing about their
purpose (e.g., 1614). In the early days some manufacturers used proprietary names which might convey
some information, but only about their products; the KT66 and KT88 were "Kinkless Tetrodes". Later,
consumer tubes were given names which conveyed some information, with the same name often used
generically by several manufacturers. In the US, Radio Electronics Television Manufacturers'
Association (RETMA) designations comprise a number, followed by one or two letters, and a number.
The first number is the (rounded) heater voltage; the letters designate a particular tube but say nothing
about its structure; and the final number is the total number of electrodes (without distinguishing
between, say, a tube with many electrodes, or two sets of electrodes in a single envelope—a double
triode, for example). For example, the 12AX7 is a double triode (two sets of three electrodes plus heater)
with a 12.6V heater (which, as it happens, can also be connected to run from 6.3V). The "AX" has no
meaning other than to designate this particular tube according to its characteristics. Similar, but not
identical, tubes are the 12AD7, 12AE7...12AT7, 12AU7, 12AV7, 12AW7 (rare!), 12AY7, and the 12AZ7.

A system widely used in Europe known as the Mullard–Philips tube designation, also extended to
transistors, uses a letter, followed by one or more further letters, and a number. The type designator
specifies the heater voltage or current (one letter), the functions of all sections of the tube (one letter per
section), the socket type (first digit), and the particular tube (remaining digits). For example, the ECC83
(equivalent to the 12AX7) is a 6.3V (E) double triode (CC) with a miniature base (8). In this system
special-quality tubes (e.g., for long-life computer use) are indicated by moving the number immediately
after the first letter: the E83CC is a special-quality equivalent of the ECC83, the E55L a power pentode
with no consumer equivalent.

Special-purpose tubes
Some special-purpose tubes are constructed with particular gases in
the envelope. For instance, voltage-regulator tubes contain various
inert gases such as argon, helium or neon, which will ionize at
predictable voltages. The thyratron is a special-purpose tube filled
with low-pressure gas or mercury vapor. Like vacuum tubes, it
contains a hot cathode and an anode, but also a control electrode
which behaves somewhat like the grid of a triode. When the control
electrode starts conduction, the gas ionizes, after which the control
electrode can no longer stop the current; the tube "latches" into
conduction. Removing anode (plate) voltage lets the gas de-ionize,
restoring its non-conductive state.

Some thyratrons can carry large currents for their physical size. One
example is the miniature type 2D21, often seen in 1950s jukeboxes
as control switches for relays. A cold-cathode version of the Voltage-regulator tube in
thyratron, which uses a pool of mercury for its cathode, is called an operation. Low pressure gas
within tube glows due to current
ignitron; some can switch thousands of amperes. Thyratrons
flow.
containing hydrogen have a very consistent time delay between their
turn-on pulse and full conduction; they behave much like modern
silicon-controlled rectifiers, also called thyristors due to their functional similarity to thyratrons.
Hydrogen thyratrons have long been used in radar transmitters.

A specialized tube is the krytron, which is used for rapid high-voltage switching. Krytrons are used to
initiate the detonations used to set off a nuclear weapon; krytrons are heavily controlled at an
international level.

X-ray tubes are used in medical imaging among other uses. X-ray tubes used for continuous-duty
operation in fluoroscopy and CT imaging equipment may use a focused cathode and a rotating anode to
dissipate the large amounts of heat thereby generated. These are housed in an oil-filled aluminium
housing to provide cooling.

The photomultiplier tube is an extremely sensitive detector of light, which uses the photoelectric effect
and secondary emission, rather than thermionic emission, to generate and amplify electrical signals.
Nuclear medicine imaging equipment and liquid scintillation counters use photomultiplier tube arrays to
detect low-intensity scintillation due to ionizing radiation.

The Ignatron tube was used in resistance welding equipment in the early 1970s. The Ignatron had a
cathode, anode and an igniter. The tube base was filled with mercury and the tube was used as a very
high current switch. A large current potential was placed between the anode and cathode of the tube but
was only permitted to conduct when the igniter in contact with the mercury had enough current to
vaporize the mercury and complete the circuit. Because this was used in resistance welding there were
two Ignatrons for the two phases of an AC circuit. Because of the mercury at the bottom of the tube they
were extremely difficult to ship. These tubes were eventually replaced by SCRs (Silicon Controlled
Rectifiers).

Powering the tube

Batteries
Batteries provided the voltages required by tubes in early radio sets. Three different voltages were
generally required, using three different batteries designated as the A, B, and C battery. The "A" battery
or LT (low-tension) battery provided the filament voltage. Tube heaters were designed for single, double
or triple-cell lead-acid batteries, giving nominal heater voltages of 2 V, 4 V or 6 V. In portable radios, dry
batteries were sometimes used with 1.5 or 1 V heaters. Reducing filament consumption improved the life
span of batteries. By 1955 towards the end of the tube era, tubes using only 50 mA down to as little as 10
mA for the heaters had been developed.[36]

The high voltage applied to the anode (plate) was provided by the "B" battery or the HT (high-tension)
supply or battery. These were generally of dry cell construction and typically came in 22.5-, 45-, 67.5-,
90-, 120- or 135-volt versions. After the use of B-batteries was phased out and rectified line-power was
employed to produce the high voltage needed by tubes' plates, the term "B+" persisted when referring to
the high voltage source.

Early sets used a grid bias battery or "C" battery which was
connected to provide a negative voltage. Since virtually no
current flows through a tube's grid connection, these batteries had
very low drain and lasted the longest. Even after AC power
supplies became commonplace, some radio sets continued to be
built with C batteries, as they would almost never need replacing.
However more modern circuits were designed using cathode
biasing, eliminating the need for a third power supply voltage;
this became practical with tubes using indirect heating of the
cathode.

The "C battery" for bias is a designation having no relation to the

"C cell" battery size.
Batteries for a vacuum tube circuit.
The C battery is highlighted.

AC power
Battery replacement was a major operating cost for early radio receiver users. The development of the
battery eliminator, and, in 1925, batteryless receivers operated by household power, reduced operating
costs and contributed to the growing popularity of radio. A power supply using a transformer with
several windings, one or more rectifiers (which may themselves be vacuum tubes), and large filter
capacitors provided the required direct current voltages from the alternating current source.

As a cost reduction measure, especially in high-volume consumer receivers, all the tube heaters could be
connected in series across the AC supply using heaters requiring the same current and with a similar
warm-up time. In one such design, a tap on the tube heater string supplied the 6 volts needed for the dial
light. By deriving the high voltage from a half-wave rectifier directly connected to the AC mains, the
heavy and costly power transformer was eliminated. This also allowed such receivers to operate on direct
current, a so-called AC/DC receiver design. Many different US consumer AM radio manufacturers of the
era used a virtually identical circuit, given the nickname All American Five.

Where the mains voltage was in the 100–120 V range, this limited voltage proved suitable only for low-
power receivers. Television receivers either required a transformer or could use a voltage doubling
circuit. Where 230 V nominal mains voltage was used, television receivers as well could dispense with a
power transformer.

Transformer-less power supplies required safety precautions in their design to limit the shock hazard to
users, such as electrically insulated cabinets and an interlock tying the power cord to the cabinet back, so
the line cord was necessarily disconnected if the user or service person opened the cabinet. A cheater
cord was a power cord ending in the special socket used by the safety interlock; servicers could then
power the device with the hazardous voltages exposed.

To avoid the warm-up delay, "instant on" television receivers passed a small heating current through their
tubes even when the set was nominally off. At switch on, full heating current was provided and the set
would play almost immediately.

Reliability
One reliability problem of tubes with oxide cathodes is the possibility
that the cathode may slowly become "poisoned" by gas molecules from
other elements in the tube, which reduce its ability to emit electrons.
Trapped gases or slow gas leaks can also damage the cathode or cause
plate (anode) current runaway due to ionization of free gas molecules.
Vacuum hardness and proper selection of construction materials are the
major influences on tube lifetime. Depending on the material,
temperature and construction, the surface material of the cathode may
also diffuse onto other elements. The resistive heaters that heat the
cathodes may break in a manner similar to incandescent lamp filaments,
but rarely do, since they operate at much lower temperatures than lamps.

The heater's failure mode is typically a stress-related fracture of the

Tube tester manufactured in
tungsten wire or at a weld point and generally occurs after accruing many 1930
thermal (power on-off) cycles. Tungsten wire has a very low resistance
when at room temperature. A negative temperature coefficient device,
such as a thermistor, may be incorporated in the equipment's heater supply or a ramp-up circuit may be
employed to allow the heater or filaments to reach operating temperature more gradually than if
powered-up in a step-function. Low-cost radios had tubes with heaters connected in series, with a total
voltage equal to that of the line (mains). Some receivers made before World War II had series-string
heaters with total voltage less than that of the mains. Some had a resistance wire running the length of the
power cord to drop the voltage to the tubes. Others had series resistors made like regular tubes; they were
called ballast tubes.

Following World War II, tubes intended to be used in series heater strings were redesigned to all have the
same ("controlled") warm-up time. Earlier designs had quite-different thermal time constants. The audio
output stage, for instance, had a larger cathode, and warmed up more slowly than lower-powered tubes.
The result was that heaters that warmed up faster also temporarily had higher resistance, because of their
positive temperature coefficient. This disproportionate resistance caused them to temporarily operate
with heater voltages well above their ratings, and shortened their life.

Another important reliability problem is caused by air leakage into the tube. Usually oxygen in the air
reacts chemically with the hot filament or cathode, quickly ruining it. Designers developed tube designs
that sealed reliably. This was why most tubes were constructed of glass. Metal alloys (such as Cunife and
Fernico) and glasses had been developed for light bulbs that expanded and contracted in similar amounts,
as temperature changed. These made it easy to construct an insulating envelope of glass, while passing
connection wires through the glass to the electrodes.

When a vacuum tube is overloaded or operated past its design dissipation, its anode (plate) may glow red.
In consumer equipment, a glowing plate is universally a sign of an overloaded tube. However, some large
transmitting tubes are designed to operate with their anodes at red, orange, or in rare cases, white heat.

"Special quality" versions of standard tubes were often made, designed for improved performance in
some respect, such as a longer life cathode, low noise construction, mechanical ruggedness via
ruggedized filaments, low microphony, for applications where the tube will spend much of its time cut
off, etc. The only way to know the particular features of a special quality part is by reading the data sheet.
Names may reflect the standard name (12AU7==>12AU7A, its equivalent ECC82==>E82CC, etc.), or
be absolutely anything (standard and special-quality equivalents of the same tube include 12AU7,
ECC82, B329, CV491, E2163, E812CC, M8136, CV4003, 6067, VX7058, 5814A and 12AU7A).[37]

The longest recorded valve life was earned by a Mazda AC/P pentode valve (serial No. 4418) in
operation at the BBC's main Northern Ireland transmitter at Lisnagarvey. The valve was in service from
1935 until 1961 and had a recorded life of 232,592 hours. The BBC maintained meticulous records of
their valves' lives with periodic returns to their central valve stores.[38][39]

Vacuum
A vacuum tube needs an extremely good ("hard") vacuum to avoid the consequences of generating
positive ions within the tube. With a small amount of residual gas, some of those atoms may ionize when
struck by an electron and create fields that adversely affect the tube characteristics. Larger amounts of
residual gas can create a self-sustaining visible glow discharge between the tube elements. To avoid these
effects, the residual pressure within the tube must be low enough that the mean free path of an electron is
much longer than the size of the tube (so an electron is unlikely to strike a residual atom and very few
ionized atoms will be present). Commercial vacuum tubes are evacuated at manufacture to about
0.000001 mmHg (1.0 × 10−6 Torr; 130 μPa; 1.3 × 10−6 mbar; 1.3 × 10−9 atm).[40]

To prevent gases from compromising the tube's vacuum, modern tubes are constructed with "getters",
which are usually small, circular troughs filled with metals that oxidize quickly, barium being the most
common. While the tube envelope is being evacuated, the internal parts except the getter are heated by
RF induction heating to evolve any remaining gas from the metal
parts. The tube is then sealed and the getter is heated to a high
temperature, again by radio frequency induction heating, which
causes the getter material to vaporize and react with any residual
gas. The vapor is deposited on the inside of the glass envelope,
leaving a silver-colored metallic patch which continues to absorb
small amounts of gas that may leak into the tube during its
working life. Great care is taken with the valve design to ensure
this material is not deposited on any of the working electrodes. If
a tube develops a serious leak in the envelope, this deposit turns a
white color as it reacts with atmospheric oxygen. Large
transmitting and specialized tubes often use more exotic getter Getter in opened tube; silvery deposit
from getter
materials, such as zirconium. Early gettered tubes used
phosphorus-based getters, and these tubes are easily identifiable,
as the phosphorus leaves a characteristic orange or rainbow
deposit on the glass. The use of phosphorus was short-lived and
was quickly replaced by the superior barium getters. Unlike the
barium getters, the phosphorus did not absorb any further gases
once it had fired.

Getters act by chemically combining with residual or infiltrating

gases, but are unable to counteract (non-reactive) inert gases. A
known problem, mostly affecting valves with large envelopes
such as cathode ray tubes and camera tubes such as iconoscopes, Dead vacuum fluorescent display (air
has leaked in and the getter spot has
orthicons, and image orthicons, comes from helium infiltration.
become white)
The effect appears as impaired or absent functioning, and as a
diffuse glow along the electron stream inside the tube. This effect
cannot be rectified (short of re-evacuation and resealing), and is responsible for working examples of
such tubes becoming rarer and rarer. Unused ("New Old Stock") tubes can also exhibit inert gas
infiltration, so there is no long-term guarantee of these tube types surviving into the future.

Transmitting tubes
Large transmitting tubes have carbonized tungsten filaments containing a small trace (1% to 2%) of
thorium. An extremely thin (molecular) layer of thorium atoms forms on the outside of the wire's
carbonized layer and, when heated, serve as an efficient source of electrons. The thorium slowly
evaporates from the wire surface, while new thorium atoms diffuse to the surface to replace them. Such
thoriated tungsten cathodes usually deliver lifetimes in the tens of thousands of hours. The end-of-life
scenario for a thoriated-tungsten filament is when the carbonized layer has mostly been converted back
into another form of tungsten carbide and emission begins to drop off rapidly; a complete loss of thorium
has never been found to be a factor in the end-of-life in a tube with this type of emitter. WAAY-TV in
Huntsville, Alabama achieved 163,000 hours (18.6 years) of service from an Eimac external cavity
klystron in the visual circuit of its transmitter; this is the highest documented service life for this type of
tube.[41] It has been said that transmitters with vacuum tubes are better able to survive lightning strikes
than transistor transmitters do. While it was commonly believed that at RF power levels above
approximately 20 kilowatts, vacuum tubes were more efficient than solid-state circuits, this is no longer
the case, especially in medium wave (AM broadcast) service where solid-state transmitters at nearly all
power levels have measurably higher efficiency. FM broadcast transmitters with solid-state power
amplifiers up to approximately 15 kW also show better overall power efficiency than tube-based power
amplifiers.

Receiving tubes
Cathodes in small "receiving" tubes are coated with a mixture of barium oxide and strontium oxide,
sometimes with addition of calcium oxide or aluminium oxide. An electric heater is inserted into the
cathode sleeve, and insulated from it electrically by a coating of aluminium oxide. This complex
construction causes barium and strontium atoms to diffuse to the surface of the cathode and emit
electrons when heated to about 780 degrees Celsius.

Failure modes

Catastrophic failures
A catastrophic failure is one which suddenly makes the vacuum tube unusable. A crack in the glass
envelope will allow air into the tube and destroy it. Cracks may result from stress in the glass, bent pins
or impacts; tube sockets must allow for thermal expansion, to prevent stress in the glass at the pins.
Stress may accumulate if a metal shield or other object presses on the tube envelope and causes
differential heating of the glass. Glass may also be damaged by high-voltage arcing.

Tube heaters may also fail without warning, especially if exposed to over voltage or as a result of
manufacturing defects. Tube heaters do not normally fail by evaporation like lamp filaments, since they
operate at much lower temperature. The surge of inrush current when the heater is first energized causes
stress in the heater, and can be avoided by slowly warming the heaters, gradually increasing current with
a NTC thermistor included in the circuit. Tubes intended for series-string operation of the heaters across
the supply have a specified controlled warm-up time to avoid excess voltage on some heaters as others
warm up. Directly heated filament-type cathodes as used in battery-operated tubes or some rectifiers may
fail if the filament sags, causing internal arcing. Excess heater-to-cathode voltage in indirectly heated
cathodes can break down the insulation between elements and destroy the heater.

Arcing between tube elements can destroy the tube. An arc can be caused by applying voltage to the
anode (plate) before the cathode has come up to operating temperature, or by drawing excess current
through a rectifier, which damages the emission coating. Arcs can also be initiated by any loose material
inside the tube, or by excess screen voltage. An arc inside the tube allows gas to evolve from the tube
materials, and may deposit conductive material on internal insulating spacers.[42]

Tube rectifiers have limited current capability and exceeding ratings will eventually destroy a tube.

Degenerative failures
Degenerative failures are those caused by the slow deterioration of performance over time.

Overheating of internal parts, such as control grids or mica spacer insulators, can result in trapped gas
escaping into the tube; this can reduce performance. A getter is used to absorb gases evolved during tube
operation, but has only a limited ability to combine with gas. Control of the envelope temperature
prevents some types of gassing. A tube with an unusually high level of internal gas may exhibit a visible
blue glow when plate voltage is applied. The getter (being a highly reactive metal) is effective against
many atmospheric gases, but has no (or very limited) chemical reactivity to inert gases such as helium.
One progressive type of failure, especially with physically large envelopes such as those used by camera
tubes and cathode-ray tubes, comes from helium infiltration. The exact mechanism is not clear: the
metal-to-glass lead-in seals are one possible infiltration site.

Gas and ions within the tube contribute to grid current which can disturb operation of a vacuum tube
circuit. Another effect of overheating is the slow deposit of metallic vapors on internal spacers, resulting
in inter-element leakage.

Tubes on standby for long periods, with heater voltage applied, may develop high cathode interface
resistance and display poor emission characteristics. This effect occurred especially in pulse and digital
circuits, where tubes had no plate current flowing for extended times. Tubes designed specifically for this
mode of operation were made.

Cathode depletion is the loss of emission after thousands of hours of normal use. Sometimes emission
can be restored for a time by raising heater voltage, either for a short time or a permanent increase of a
few percent. Cathode depletion was uncommon in signal tubes but was a frequent cause of failure of
monochrome television cathode-ray tubes.[43] Usable life of this expensive component was sometimes
extended by fitting a boost transformer to increase heater voltage.

Other failures
Vacuum tubes may develop defects in operation that make an individual tube unsuitable in a given
device, although it may perform satisfactorily in another application. Microphonics refers to internal
vibrations of tube elements which modulate the tube's signal in an undesirable way; sound or vibration
pick-up may affect the signals, or even cause uncontrolled howling if a feedback path (with greater than
unity gain) develops between a microphonic tube and, for example, a loudspeaker. Leakage current
between AC heaters and the cathode may couple into the circuit, or electrons emitted directly from the
ends of the heater may also inject hum into the signal. Leakage current due to internal contamination may
also inject noise.[44] Some of these effects make tubes unsuitable for small-signal audio use, although
unobjectionable for other purposes. Selecting the best of a batch of nominally identical tubes for critical
applications can produce better results.

Tube pins can develop non-conducting or high resistance surface films due to heat or dirt. Pins can be
cleaned to restore conductance.

Testing
Vacuum tubes can be tested outside of their circuitry using a
vacuum tube tester.

Other vacuum tube devices

Most small signal vacuum tube devices have been superseded by
semiconductors, but some vacuum tube electronic devices are
still in common use. The magnetron is the type of tube used in all
Universal vacuum tube tester
microwave ovens. In spite of the advancing state of the art in power semiconductor technology, the
vacuum tube still has reliability and cost advantages for high-frequency RF power generation.

Some tubes, such as magnetrons, traveling-wave tubes, carcinotrons, and klystrons, combine magnetic
and electrostatic effects. These are efficient (usually narrow-band) RF generators and still find use in
radar, microwave ovens and industrial heating. Traveling-wave tubes (TWTs) are very good amplifiers
and are even used in some communications satellites. High-powered klystron amplifier tubes can provide
hundreds of kilowatts in the UHF range.

Cathode ray tubes

The cathode ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube used particularly for display purposes. Although there are
still many televisions and computer monitors using cathode ray tubes, they are rapidly being replaced by
flat panel displays whose quality has greatly improved even as their prices drop. This is also true of
digital oscilloscopes (based on internal computers and analog to digital converters), although traditional
analog scopes (dependent upon CRTs) continue to be produced, are economical, and preferred by many
technicians. At one time many radios used "magic eye tubes", a specialized sort of CRT used in place of
a meter movement to indicate signal strength, or input level in a tape recorder. A modern indicator
device, the vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) is also a sort of cathode ray tube.

The X-ray tube is a type of cathode ray tube that generates X-rays when high voltage electrons hit the
anode.

Gyrotrons or vacuum masers, used to generate high-power millimeter band waves, are magnetic vacuum
tubes in which a small relativistic effect, due to the high voltage, is used for bunching the electrons.
Gyrotrons can generate very high powers (hundreds of kilowatts). Free-electron lasers, used to generate
high-power coherent light and even X-rays, are highly relativistic vacuum tubes driven by high-energy
particle accelerators. Thus, these are sorts of cathode ray tubes.

Electron multipliers
A photomultiplier is a phototube whose sensitivity is greatly increased through the use of electron
multiplication. This works on the principle of secondary emission, whereby a single electron emitted by
the photocathode strikes a special sort of anode known as a dynode causing more electrons to be released
from that dynode. Those electrons are accelerated toward another dynode at a higher voltage, releasing
more secondary electrons; as many as 15 such stages provide a huge amplification. Despite great
advances in solid-state photodetectors, the single-photon detection capability of photomultiplier tubes
makes this vacuum tube device excel in certain applications. Such a tube can also be used for detection of
ionizing radiation as an alternative to the Geiger–Müller tube (itself not an actual vacuum tube).
Historically, the image orthicon TV camera tube widely used in television studios prior to the
development of modern CCD arrays also used multistage electron multiplication.

For decades, electron-tube designers tried to augment amplifying tubes with electron multipliers in order
to increase gain, but these suffered from short life because the material used for the dynodes "poisoned"
the tube's hot cathode. (For instance, the interesting RCA 1630 secondary-emission tube was marketed,
but did not last.) However, eventually, Philips of the Netherlands developed the EFP60 tube that had a
satisfactory lifetime, and was used in at least one product, a laboratory pulse generator. By that time,
however, transistors were rapidly improving, making such developments superfluous.
One variant called a "channel electron multiplier" does not use individual dynodes but consists of a
curved tube, such as a helix, coated on the inside with material with good secondary emission. One type
had a funnel of sorts to capture the secondary electrons. The continuous dynode was resistive, and its
ends were connected to enough voltage to create repeated cascades of electrons. The microchannel plate
consists of an array of single stage electron multipliers over an image plane; several of these can then be
stacked. This can be used, for instance, as an image intensifier in which the discrete channels substitute
for focussing.

Tektronix made a high-performance wideband oscilloscope CRT with a channel electron multiplier plate
behind the phosphor layer. This plate was a bundled array of a huge number of short individual c.e.m.
tubes that accepted a low-current beam and intensified it to provide a display of practical brightness. (The
electron optics of the wideband electron gun could not provide enough current to directly excite the
phosphor.)

Vacuum tubes in the 21st century

Niche applications
Although vacuum tubes have been largely replaced by solid-state devices in most amplifying, switching,
and rectifying applications, there are certain exceptions. In addition to the special functions noted above,
tubes still have some niche applications.

In general, vacuum tubes are much less susceptible than corresponding solid-state components to
transient overvoltages, such as mains voltage surges or lightning, the electromagnetic pulse effect of
nuclear explosions,[45] or geomagnetic storms produced by giant solar flares.[46] This property kept them
in use for certain military applications long after more practical and less expensive solid-state technology
was available for the same applications, as for example with the MiG-25.[45] In that aircraft, output
power of the radar is about one kilowatt and it can burn through a channel under interference.

Vacuum tubes are still practical alternatives to solid-state devices in generating high power at radio
frequencies in applications such as industrial radio frequency heating, particle accelerators, and broadcast
transmitters. This is particularly true at microwave frequencies where such devices as the klystron and
traveling-wave tube provide amplification at power levels unattainable using current semiconductor
devices. The household microwave oven uses a magnetron tube to efficiently generate hundreds of watts
of microwave power. Solid-state devices such as gallium nitride are promising replacements, but are very
expensive and still in development.

In military applications, a high-power vacuum tube can generate a 10–100 megawatt signal that can burn
out an unprotected receiver's frontend. Such devices are considered non-nuclear electromagnetic
weapons; they were introduced in the late 1990s by both the U.S. and Russia.

Audiophiles
Enough people prefer tube sound to make tube amplifiers commercially viable in three areas: musical
instrument (e.g., guitar) amplifiers, devices used in recording studios, and audiophile equipment.[49]
Many guitarists prefer using valve amplifiers to solid-state
models, often due to the way they tend to distort when
overdriven. Any amplifier can only accurately amplify a signal to
a certain volume; past this limit, the amplifier will begin to distort
the signal. Different circuits will distort the signal in different
ways; some guitarists prefer the distortion characteristics of
vacuum tubes. Most popular vintage models use vacuum tubes.

Displays 70-watt tube-hybrid audio amplifier

selling for US$2,680[47] in 2011,
about 10 times the price of a
Cathode ray tube comparable model using
The cathode ray tube was the dominant display technology for transistors.[48]
televisions and computer monitors at the start of the 21st century.
However, rapid advances and falling prices of LCD flat panel
technology soon took the place of CRTs in these devices.[50] By 2010, most CRT production had
ended.[51]

Vacuum fluorescent display

A modern display technology using a variation of cathode ray
tube is often used in videocassette recorders, DVD players and
recorders, microwave oven control panels, and automotive
dashboards. Rather than raster scanning, these vacuum
fluorescent displays (VFD) switch control grids and anode
voltages on and off, for instance, to display discrete characters.
The VFD uses phosphor-coated anodes as in other display Typical VFD used in a videocassette
cathode ray tubes. Because the filaments are in view, they must recorder

be operated at temperatures where the filament does not glow

visibly. This is possible using more recent cathode technology,
and these tubes also operate with quite low anode voltages (often less than 50 volts) unlike cathode ray
tubes. Their high brightness allows reading the display in bright daylight. VFD tubes are flat and
rectangular, as well as relatively thin. Typical VFD phosphors emit a broad spectrum of greenish-white
light, permitting use of color filters, though different phosphors can give other colors even within the
same display. The design of these tubes provides a bright glow despite the low energy of the incident
electrons. This is because the distance between the cathode and anode is relatively small. (This
technology is distinct from fluorescent lighting, which uses a discharge tube.)

Vacuum tubes using field electron emitters

In the early years of the 21st century there has been renewed interest in vacuum tubes, this time with the
electron emitter formed on a flat silicon substrate, as in integrated circuit technology. This subject is now
called vacuum nanoelectronics.[52] The most common design uses a cold cathode in the form of a large-
area field electron source (for example a field emitter array). With these devices, electrons are field-
emitted from a large number of closely spaced individual emission sites.
Such integrated microtubes may find application in microwave devices including mobile phones, for
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi transmission, and in radar and satellite communication. As of 2012, they were being
studied for possible applications in field emission display technology, but there were significant
production problems.

As of 2014, NASA's Ames Research Center was reported to be working on vacuum-channel transistors
produced using CMOS techniques.[53]

Charactiristics

Space charge of a vacuum tube

The space between the Cathode and the Anode form a cloud
which is known as the "space charge".

V-I characteristic of vacuum tube

The V-I characteristic depends upon the size and material of the
plate and cathode.[54] Express the ratio between voltage plate and
Charcteristics of Pentode
plate current.[55]

V-I curve (Voltage across filaments,plate current)

Plate current,plate voltage characteristics
DC plate resistance of the plate - resistance of the path between anode and cathode of
direct current
AC plate resistance of the plate - resistance of the path between anode and cathode of
alternating current

Size of electrostatic field

Size of electrostatic field is the size between two or more plates in the tube.

Patents
U.S. Patent 803,684 (https://www.google.com/patents/US803684)—Instrument for
converting alternating electric currents into continuous currents (Fleming valve patent)
U.S. Patent 841,387 (https://www.google.com/patents/US841387)—Device for amplifying
feeble electrical currents
U.S. Patent 879,532 (https://www.google.com/patents/US879532)—De Forest's Audion

See also
Bogey value—close to manufacturer's stated parameter values
Fetron—a solid-state, plug-compatible, replacement for vacuum tubes
List of vacuum tubes—a list of type numbers.
List of vacuum tube computers
Mullard–Philips tube designation
 Nixie tube—a gas-filled display device sometimes misidentified as a vacuum tube
RETMA tube designation
RMA tube designation
Russian tube designations
Tube caddy
Tube tester
Valve amplifier
Zetatron

References
1. Reich, Herbert J. (13 April 2013). Principles of Electron Tubes (http://www.tubebooks.org/Bo
oks/reich_principles.pdf) (PDF). Literary Licensing, LLC. ISBN 978-1258664060. Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20170402091020/http://www.tubebooks.org/Books/reich_princi
ples.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2 April 2017.
2. Fundamental Amplifier Techniques with Electron Tubes: Theory and Practice with Design
Methods for Self Construction. Elektor Electronics. 1 January 2011. ISBN 978-0905705934.
3. "RCA Electron Tube 6BN6/6KS6" (https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Electron-Tube-6BN6-6KS
6/dp/B00B546XFQ/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1428961821&sr=8-10&keywords=%22electr
on+tube%22). Retrieved 13 April 2015.
4. John Algeo, "Types of English heteronyms", p. 23 in, Edgar Werner Schneider (ed),
Englishes Around the World: General studies, British Isles, North America, John Benjamins
Publishing, 1997 ISBN 9027248761.
5. Hoddeson, L. "The Vacuum Tube" (https://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/events/vacuumt.h
tml). PBS. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120415063342/http://www.pbs.org/trans
istor/science/events/vacuumt.html) from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 6 May
2012.
6. Macksey, Kenneth; Woodhouse, William (1991). "Electronics". The Penguin Encyclopedia of
Modern Warfare: 1850 to the present day. Viking. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-670-82698-8. "The
electronics age may be said to have been ushered in with the invention of the vacuum diode
valve in 1902 by the Briton John Fleming (himself coining the word 'electronics'), the
immediate application being in the field of radio."
7. Jones, Morgan (2012). Valve Amplifiers. Elsevier. p. 580. ISBN 978-0080966403.
8. Olsen, George Henry (2013). Electronics: A General Introduction for the Non-Specialist.
Springer. p. 391. ISBN 978-1489965356.
9. Rogers, D. C. (1951). "Triode amplifiers in the frequency range 100 Mc/s to 420 Mc/s" (htt
p://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=5258684). Journal of the British
Institution of Radio Engineers. 11 (12): 569–575. doi:10.1049/jbire.1951.0074 (https://doi.or
g/10.1049%2Fjbire.1951.0074). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150615230726/htt
p://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=5258684) from the original on 15
June 2015., p.571 (https://books.google.com/books?id=SxNKAQAAIAAJ&q=%22A+top+cap
+is+used+to+reduce+the+anode-to-grid+capacitance%22) Archived (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20180105232922/https://books.google.com/books?id=SxNKAQAAIAAJ&q=%22A+to
p+cap+is+used+to+reduce+the+anode-to-grid+capacitance%22) 5 January 2018 at the
Wayback Machine
10. Bray, John (2002). Innovation and the Communications Revolution: From the Victorian
Pioneers to Broadband Internet (https://books.google.com/?id=3h7R36Y0yFUC&pg=PA88&
lpg=PA88). IET. ISBN 9780852962183. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20161203055
405/https://books.google.com/books?id=3h7R36Y0yFUC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&hl=en) from
the original on 3 December 2016.
11. Guthrie, Frederick (1876). Magnetism and Electricity (https://books.google.com/?id=UuoDA
AAAQAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1). London and Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150517001705/https://books.google.com/books?id
=UuoDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&source=bl&hl=en&sa=X&f=false) from the original
on 17 May 2015.
12. Thomas A. Edison U.S. Patent 307,031 (https://www.google.com/patents/US307031)
"Electrical Indicator", Issue date: 1884
13. Guarnieri, M. (2012). "The age of vacuum tubes: Early devices and the rise of radio
communications". IEEE Ind. Electron. M. 6 (1): 41–43. doi:10.1109/MIE.2012.2182822 (http
s://doi.org/10.1109%2FMIE.2012.2182822).
14. White, Thomas, United States Early Radio History (https://earlyradiohistory.us/sec010.htm),
archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120818042321/http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec010.ht
m) from the original on 18 August 2012
15. "Mazda Valves" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130628205923/http://www.vintage-technolo
gy.info/pages/ephemera/vemazda.htm). Archived from the original (http://www.vintage-techn
ology.info/pages/ephemera/vemazda.htm) on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
16. "Robert von Lieben — Patent Nr 179807 Dated November 19, 1906" (http://www.hts-homep
age.de/Lieben/DRP179807.pdf) (PDF). Kaiserliches Patentamt. 19 November 1906.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080528125703/http://www.hts-homepage.de/Liebe
n/DRP179807.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
17. "Archived copy" (http://www.corp.att.com/attlabs/reputation/timeline/15tel.html). Archived (ht
tps://web.archive.org/web/20131005081147/http://www.corp.att.com/attlabs/reputation/timeli
ne/15tel.html) from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
18. Räisänen, Antti V.; Lehto, Arto (2003). Radio Engineering for Wireless Communication and
Sensor Applications. Artech House. p. 7. ISBN 978-1580536691.
19. Edison Tech Center (2015). "General Electric Research Lab History" (http://edisontechcente
r.org/GEresearchLab.html). edisontechcenter.org. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
20. J.Jenkins and W.H.Jarvis, "Basic Principles of Electronics, Volume 1 Thermionics",
Pergamon Press (1966), Ch.1.10 p.9
21. Guarnieri, M. (2012). "The age of vacuum tubes: the conquest of analog communications".
IEEE Ind. Electron. M. 6 (2): 52–54. doi:10.1109/MIE.2012.2193274 (https://doi.org/10.110
9%2FMIE.2012.2193274).
22. Introduction to Thermionic Valves (Vacuum Tubes) (http://www.cjseymour.plus.com/elec/val
ves/valves.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070528141924/http://www.cjseym
our.plus.com/elec/valves/valves.htm) 28 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Colin J.
Seymour
23. "Philips Historical Products: Philips Vacuum Tubes" (http://www.philips-historische-producte
n.nl/tube-uk.html). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20131106031350/http://www.philip
s-historische-producten.nl/tube-uk.html) from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved
3 November 2013.
24. Baker, Bonnie (2008). Analog circuits. Newnes. p. 391. ISBN 978-0-7506-8627-3.
25. Modjeski, Roger A. "Mu, Gm and Rp and how Tubes are matched" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20120321012946/http://xn--vlljud-bua.se/index.php/tilbehoer/ram-labs/mu-gm-and-rp-a
nd-how-tubes-are-matched). Välljud AB. Archived from the original (http://välljud.se/index.p
hp/tilbehoer/ram-labs/mu-gm-and-rp-and-how-tubes-are-matched) on 21 March 2012.
Retrieved 22 April 2011.
26. Ballou, Glen (1987). Handbook for Sound Engineers: The New Audio Cyclopedia (1st ed.).
Howard W. Sams Co. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-672-21983-2. "Amplification factor or voltage gain
is the amount the signal at the control grid is increased in amplitude after passing through
the tube, which is also referred to as the Greek letter μ (mu) or voltage gain (Vg) of the
tube."
27. C H Gardner (1965) The Story of the Valve (http://www.r-type.org/articles/art-001.htm)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20151223164546/http://www.r-type.org/articles/art-00
1.htm) 23 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Radio Constructor (See particularly the
section "Glass Base Construction")
28. L.W. Turner (ed.) Electronics Engineer's Reference Book, 4th ed. Newnes-Butterworth,
London 1976 ISBN 0-408-00168-2 pages 7–2 through 7-6
29. Guarnieri, M. (2012). "The age of Vacuum Tubes: Merging with Digital Computing". IEEE
Ind. Electron. M. 6 (3): 52–55. doi:10.1109/MIE.2012.2207830 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2F
MIE.2012.2207830).
30. From part of Copeland's "Colossus" available online (http://www.colossus-computer.com/col
ossus1.html#section02) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120323055457/http://www.
colossus-computer.com/colossus1.html) 23 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
31. Randall, Alexander 5th (14 February 2006). "A lost interview with ENIAC co-inventor J.
Presper Eckert" (http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2006/0,4814,108568,00.html).
Computer World. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090402143001/http://www.comp
uterworld.com/printthis/2006/0,4814,108568,00.html) from the original on 2 April 2009.
Retrieved 25 April 2011.
32. The National Museum of Computing—Rebuilding Colossus (http://www.tnmoc.org/special-pr
ojects/colossus-rebuild/rebuilding-colossus)
The National Museum of Computing—The Colossus Gallery (http://www.tnmoc.org/explor
e/colossus-gallery)
33. RCA "Transmitting Tubes Manual" TT-5 1962, p. 10
34. "MULTI-PHASE COOLED POWER TETRODE 4CM2500KG" (http://www.cpii.com/docs/dat
asheets/78/4CM2500KG%20June%202011.pdf) (PDF). Archived (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20161011144807/http://www.cpii.com/docs/datasheets/78/4CM2500KG%20June%2020
11.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2016. "The maximum anode dissipation rating
is 2500 kilowatts."
35. The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, J. L. Heilbron, Oxford University
Press 2003, 9780195112290, "valve, thermionic"
36. Okamura, Sōgo (1994). History of electron tubes (https://books.google.com/books?id=VHFy
ngmO95YC&pg=PA133). IOS Press. pp. 133–. ISBN 978-90-5199-145-1. Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20130622234430/http://books.google.com/books?id=VHFyngmO95Y
C&pg=PA133) from the original on 22 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
37. National Valve Museum: audio double triodes ECC81, 2, and 3 (http://www.r-type.org/addte
xt/add070.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110107063504/http://r-type.org/add
text/add070.htm) 7 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
38. Certified by BBC central valve stores, Motspur Park
39. Mazda Data Booklet 1968 Page 112.
40. C. Robert Meissner (ed.), Vacuum Technology Transactions: Proceedings of the Sixth
National Symposium, Elsevier, 2016,ISBN 1483223558 page 96
41. 31 Alumni. "The Klystron & Cactus" (http://31alumni.com/klystron-cactus.htm). Archived (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20130820054802/http://31alumni.com/klystron-cactus.htm) from
the original on 20 August 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
42. Tomer, Robert B. (1960), Getting the most out of vacuum tubes, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA:
Howard W. Sams, LCCN 60-13843 (https://lccn.loc.gov/60-13843). available on the Internet
Archive. Chapter 1
43. Tomer 1960, 60, chapter 2
44. Tomer 1960, 60, chapter 3
45. Broad, William J. "Nuclear Pulse (I): Awakening to the Chaos Factor", Science. 29 May
1981 212: 1009–1012
46. Y Butt, The Space Review, 2011 (http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1549/2) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20120422222217/http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1549/
2) 22 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine "... geomagnetic storms, on occasion, can induce
more powerful pulses than the E3 pulse from even megaton type nuclear weapons."
47. Price of $4,680 for the "super enhanced version". Includes 90-day warranty on tubes "under
normal operation conditions". See Model no: SE-300B-70W (http://www.space-tech-lab.co
m/SP-SE-300B-70W.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120112152634/http://w
ww.space-tech-lab.com/SP-SE-300B-70W.html) 12 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
48. Rolls RA200 100 W RMS/Channel @ 4 Ohms Power Amplifier (http://www.fullcompass.co
m/product/274436.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120112000219/http://ww
w.fullcompass.com/product/274436.html) 12 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Full
Compass. Retrieved on 2011-05-09.
49. Barbour, E. (1998). "The cool sound of tubes—vacuum tube musical applications" (http://sp
ectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/the-cool-sound-of-tubes). IEEE Spectrum.
35 (8). IEEE. pp. 24–35. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120104040533/http://spec
trum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/the-cool-sound-of-tubes) from the original
on 4 January 2012.
50. Wong, May (22 October 2006). "Flat Panels Drive Old TVs From Market" (https://www.usato
day.com/tech/products/gear/2006-10-22-crt-demise_x.htm). AP via USA Today. Retrieved
8 October 2006.
51. "The Standard TV" (http://www.veritasetvisus.com/LCDTVA/LCDTVA-8,%20Spring-Summe
r%202009.pdf) (PDF). Veritas et Visus. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
52. Ackerman, Evan. "Vacuum tubes could be the future of computing" (http://www.dvice.com/ar
chives/2012/05/vacuum-tubes-co.php). Dvice. Dvice. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/
20130325192121/http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/05/vacuum-tubes-co.php) from the
original on 25 March 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
53. Anthony, Sebastian. "The vacuum tube strikes back: NASA's tiny 460GHz vacuum transistor
that could one day replace silicon FETs" (http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185027-the-
vacuum-tube-strikes-back-nasas-tiny-460ghz-vacuum-transistor-that-could-one-day-replace
-silicon-fets). ExtremeTech. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20151117023051/http://w
ww.extremetech.com/extreme/185027-the-vacuum-tube-strikes-back-nasas-tiny-460ghz-va
cuum-transistor-that-could-one-day-replace-silicon-fets) from the original on 17 November
2015.
54. indiastudychannel.com/ (https://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/144164-V-I-characte
ristic-vacuum-tubes.aspx)
55. Basic theory and application of Electron tubes Department of the army and air force,AGO
2244-Jan

Further reading
Basic Electronics: Volumes 1–5 (https://archive.org/details/BasicElectronicsVolumes15195
5); Van Valkenburgh, Nooger, Neville; John F. Rider Publisher; 1955.
Spangenberg, Karl R. (1948). Vacuum Tubes (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.45
9077). McGraw-Hill. OCLC 567981 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/567981).
LCC TK7872.V3 (https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=CALL%2B&searchArg
=TK7872.V3&searchType=1&recCount=25).
Millman, J. & Seely, S. Electronics, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, 1951.
Shiers, George, "The First Electron Tube", Scientific American, March 1969, p. 104.
Tyne, Gerald, Saga of the Vacuum Tube, Ziff Publishing, 1943, (reprint 1994 Prompt
Publications), pp. 30–83.
Stokes, John, 70 Years of Radio Tubes and Valves, Vestal Press, New York, 1982, pp. 3–9.
 Thrower, Keith, History of the British Radio Valve to 1940, MMA International, 1982, pp 9–
13.
Eastman, Austin V., Fundamentals of Vacuum Tubes, McGraw-Hill, 1949
Philips Technical Library. Books published in the UK in the 1940s and 1950s by Cleaver
Hume Press on design and application of vacuum tubes.
RCA Radiotron Designer's Handbook, 1953 (4th Edition). Contains chapters on the design
and application of receiving tubes.
Wireless World. Radio Designer's Handbook. UK reprint of the above.
RCA. Receiving Tube Manual, RC15, RC26 (1947, 1968) Issued every two years, contains
details of the technical specs of the tubes that RCA sold.

External links
The history of vacuum tubes (http://www.pentalabs.com/Limited-Warranty/Tube-Maintenanc
e-Education/How-a-Vacuum-Tube-Works)
How to build a vacuum tube tester (http://www.cfp-radio.com/realisations/rea03/rea03.html)
"The Thermionic Detector" (https://books.google.com/books?id=KSkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA1
32#v=twopage&q&f=false)—HJ van der Bijl (October 1919), Popular Science Monthly
How vacuum tubes really work (http://www.john-a-harper.com/tubes201/)—Thermionic
emission and vacuum tube theory, using introductory college-level mathematics.
The Vacuum Tube FAQ (http://www.ken-gilbert.com/techstuff/vtf.html)—FAQ from rec.audio
The invention of the thermionic valve (http://www.marconicalling.com/museum/html/events/e
vents-i=39-s=0.html). Fleming discovers the thermionic (or oscillation) valve, or 'diode'.
"Tubes Vs. Transistors: Is There an Audible Difference?" (http://www.milbert.com/tstxt.htm)
—1972 AES paper on audible differences in sound quality between vacuum tubes and
transistors.
The Virtual Valve Museum (http://www.tubecollector.org/)
The cathode ray tube site (http://www.crtsite.com)
O'Neill's Electronic museum—vacuum tube museum (http://www.oneillselectronicmuseum.c
om/page10.html)
Vacuum tubes for beginners (http://www.atatan.com/~s-ito/vacuum/vacuum.html)—
Japanese Version (http://www.atatan.com/~s-ito/vacuum/vacuum-j.html)
NJ7P Tube Database (https://web.archive.org/web/20070203135506/http://www.nj7p.org/Tu
be.php)—Data manual for tubes used in North America.
Vacuum tube data sheet locator (http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/)
Characteristics and datasheets (http://www.classiccmp.org/rtellason/tubes.html)
Video of amateur radio operator making his own vacuum tube triodes (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20080109023004/http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/make_your_own_vaccu
m_tube.html)
Tuning eye tubes (http://everything2.com/title/tuning%2520eye%2520tubes)
Archive film of Mullard factory Blackburn (http://www.techtubevalves.com/about_us/film_reel
s.php)
Western Electric specifications sheets for 1940s and 1950s electron and vacuum tubes (htt
p://www.westernelectric.com/support/we_spec_sheets.html)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vacuum_tube&oldid=930764138"

This page was last edited on 14 December 2019, at 19:44 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.