Vacuum Tubes

A vacuum tube (or also known as electron tube ) is an electronic device which
consists of an electrode structure enclosed in a glass or metal container that is evacuated.

plate

cathode
heater

The vacuum tube operates on the following principles:

emission of electrons by a metal electrode, called the cathode ;
control of free electrons flowing inside the evacuated tube.

Types
Types of Electron
Electron Emission
Current can only exist with the presence of current carriers. This state can only be
achieved when valence electrons have sufficiently gained energy to break away from the
influence of their respective parent atoms, this process is also known as electron emission.
Listed below are four methods of obtaining electron emission from the surface of a metal
conductor.

1. Thermionic Emission
Electrons are emitted from the cathode by applying heat or
thermal energy. In doing so, electrons gain sufficient energy to escape
from the metal electrode and become free electrons.

2. Photoelectric Emission
The emission of electrons is dependent on the intensity of light
striking the metal surface. The light energy is absorbed by the electron,
which increases its energy to leave the surface.

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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3. Field Emission
A strong electric field set up by a high positive voltage pulls the
electrons out of the cathode surface.

4. Secondary Emission
Free electrons are produced from a metal surface
when a high-speed primary electron suddenly strikes.
Bombarding electrons collide with the electrons in the metal
consequently ejecting them out from the surface.

Among the four examples of electron emission discussed, thermionic emission is

commonly used in vacuum tubes. In this process, there are two ways of applying heat to the
cathode:
direct heating electric current is applied to a filament wire, which also serves as the
cathode. The emitter is usually made of either tungsten or oxide -coated material.
indirect heating the cathode is electrically heated by a separate heater element
located inside it. The emitter is oxide -coated.

plate

plate

cathode
filament
(cathode)
Directly Heated Cathode

Directly Heated Cathode

heater
Indirectly Heated Cathode

Indirectly Heated Cathode

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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Vacuum Tube Diode

It is the simplest type of vacuum tube diode that consists of two metal electrodes: the
plate, P (or sometimes called anode) and the cathode, K .
Operation:
Electrons are emitted from the cathode by supplying heat either directly or indirectly.
During the heating process, a cloud of free electrons called space charge is formed
between the cathode and the plate.
P

- - -- -- - - --

By applying a positive voltage to the plate with respect to the cathode, the free
electrons repelled by the cathode are attracted towards the plate. In this state, the
vacuum tube diode acts like a closed switch or a short circuit.

However, if the voltage at the plate is made negative with respect to the cathode, free
electrons are pushed back to the cathode and no current flows, like an open-circuit.

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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Due to the nature of the vacuum tube diode to conduct current in a particular direction
and act as an open circuit when impressed with a voltage of the other direction, it is used as a
rectifier. When it is used as such, say an alternating current is used as an input, for the part of
the cycle that the anode is positive, current flows, and for the other half, no current flows.
Consider a circuit as shown below. An AC signal is fed as Vi and the output is to be
measured across the plate (P) and the cathode (K).

P
K

Vi

Characteristic Curve for an electron/vacuum tube

It is a curve plotted on graph paper to show the relation between two changing values,
for this case, these would be the plate current, IP and the plate voltage, V P.
IP, A
saturation point

cutoff point
0

VP , V

For the characteristic curve of a vacuum tube diode, there are two important parameters to
be worth noting:

cutoff point it is the minimum point at which the tube no longer operates. Below,
this value, no plate current flows.

saturation point it is the maximum point wherein raising the plate voltage no
longer increases the plate current. In other words, additional plate voltage has very
little or no effect at all in increasing the plate current.

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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Vacuum Tube Triode

A vacuum tube triode consists of three electrodes: plate, cathode and control grid. The
function of the plate and cathode in a triode is similar to that in a vacuum tube diode. The
control grid is a spiral, fine metal wire made of nickel or iron, inserted between the plate and
cathode, is used to control the flow of current in the tube.

Vacuum Tube Triode Operation

A high, positive voltage, set-up by VPP , is applied to the plate to attract the electrons
emitted by the cathode.
The control grid is applied with a negative voltage that has two components: a DC
bias voltage (VGG) and a small AC signal.
The DC bias maintains the grid to cathode voltage to be negative and it ensures the
flow of plate current with or without the AC signal.
The small AC signal varies the rate of flow of plate current

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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The figures below illustrate the behavior of the triode when the AC signal is varied.
Instead of just treating VGG as the sole fixed-bias voltage, for this illustration, VGG would be
treated as the fixed-bias voltage with the superimposed AC signal.

For (a), making VGG a few volts negative with respect to the cathode will repel back
the free electrons to the cathode resulting in a decrease of plate current. Only
electrons with higher energy state are allowed to pass through the control grid.
For (b), if VGG is set to a very large negative voltage with respect to the cathode,
which is equal to the cut-off voltage, no free electrons are allowed to pass the control
grid since the field set-up by the negatively charged control grid repels them. As a
result, no plate current flows from plate to cathode.
For (c), if VGG is made to be positive with respect to the cathode, a large number of
free electrons flow toward the plate since the grid aids the plate in attracting the
electrons. Consequently, the plate current increases.

The ability of the control grid to vary the plate current makes the triode amplify small AC
signal. Amplification takes place since a small change in the AC input signal applied at the
grid results in a large variation on the plate current and on the resulting voltage across the
plate and cathode.

Elementary Electronics 1
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Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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The figure below shows the characteristic curve of a vacuum tube triode. The different
curves exhibit the behavior of the same triode when applied with different values of control
(grid) voltages.

Tube Parameters
1. Amplification Factor,
It is the ratio of the infinitesimal change in plate voltage, VP, to an infinitesimal
change in control grid voltage, V GG, under the condition that the plate current, IP, is held
constant.

VP
VGG

IP = k

2. Plate Resistance, R P
It is the ratio of the change in the plate voltage to the change in plate current when the
control grid voltage is held constant.

RP =

VP
I P

VGG =k

3. Transconductance, G m
It is the ratio of the change in the plate current to the change in plate voltage when the
control grid voltage is held constant. It is basically the reciprocal of the plate resistance, R P.

Gm =

IP
VP

VGG =k

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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Exercise:
For the following data:

VP (volts)

VGG (volts)

IP (mA)

250
215
250

-8
-7
-7

8
8
10

find the approximate values of the

amplification factor
transconductance
plate resistance

Vacuum Tube Tetrode

The vacuum tube tetrode is an electron tube developed to eliminate the undesirable
effect of the inter-electrode capacitance existing in a vacuum triode during high frequency
operation. These inter-electrode capacitances cause oscillation and instability in radio
frequency amplifiers since the grid to plate capacitance, Cgp, feeds back energy from the plate
(output) circuit to the grid (input) circuit.

As a solution to this feedback pr oblem, an additional electrode, called screen grid, is

inserted between the plate and the control grid, thus, reducing the value of Cgp.

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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Vacuum Tube Tetrode Operation

A high positive voltage is applied to the plate to attract the electrons emitted by the
cathode. A negative voltage applied to the control grid with respect to the cathode to control
the flow of electrons from cathode to anode. A positive voltage, with a lower value compared
to the plate voltage, is applied to the screen grid relative to the cathode to help accelerate the
flow of electron from cathode to plate.

Secondary Emission in a Tetrode

When the high speed electrons strike the metal plate, some of the loosely attached
electrons within the plate are ejected out of the surface towards the screen grid as
secondary electrons. These secondary electrons are collected by positive screen grid,
thus, increasing the screen grid current.

Vacuum Tube Pentode

It is simply a vacuum tube tetrode with an additional electrode called the suppressor
grid inserted between the screen grid and the plate. Usually, the suppressor grid is connected
internally to the cathode. The purpose of this grid is to suppress secondary emission from the
plate. Any secondary electrons emitted by bombardment of the plate are repelled back, before
they can be attracted to the positive screen grid.

Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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Vacuum Tube Pentode Operation

Basically, the biasing is very similar to that of the tetrode. The suppressor grid, which
is highly negative relative to the plate, repels the secondary electrons back to the plate, thus,
eliminating the effects of secondary emission.
Elementary Electronics 1
Lecture Notes 001
Engr. Divino Fiel A. de Bien
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