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ABSTRACT
A new approach for the modeling of triodes is presented, featuring simple and physically-motivated equations.
The mathematical description includes the replication of the grid current, which is a relevant parameter for
the simulation of overdriven guitar amplifiers. If reference data from measurements of practical triodes is
available, an individual fitting to the reference can be performed, adapting some free parameters. Parameter
sets for individual models are given. To study the suitability for circuit simulations, a SPICE model is
created and tested under various conditions. Results of the model itself and when embedded in SPICE
simulations are presented and compared with measurements. It is shown that the equations characterize the
properties of real tubes in good accordance.
presented in a recent paper [2]. The tube experts 2.2. Triode Characteristics
may skip this part. For detailed exploration we refer Triodes have a third electrode placed near the cath-
to the historic standard literature [3, 4, 5]. ode, the so-called grid (G). Unlike the anode it is
not a solid plane but constructed of fine wire as a
2.1. Diode Characteristics
mesh, ladder or helix. The spacings between the
The simplest tube is the vacuum diode, where two
wires are large compared to the wires’ thickness, so
electrodes, anode and cathode are mounted in a vac-
the electrons can pass the grid on their way from the
uum cylinder. The cathode (K) is heated and hence
cathode to the anode easily.
electrons are emitted by thermionic emission. The
anode (A) or plate is designed to collect the elec- A voltage applied to the grid is able to control the
trons. Electrons can not be emitted by the cold an- flow of electrons from the cathode: a negative grid
ode and in unheated condition, no current flow is voltage causes an electric field that counteracts with
possible. the electric field from the anode, the cathode current
is reduced. A higher negative grid voltage inhibits
2.1.1. Initial Velocity Current
the current flow thoroughly. Small changes in grid
The electrons leave the hot cathode with random ve-
voltage cause high changes in current flow, thus it is
locities, some are slower and some are faster. With-
possible to use triodes for amplification.
out an external voltage applied to the anode, and
even for a slightly negative anode with respect to For clarity we define the following conventions: Va
the cathode, some of the faster electrons reach the is the anode- and Vg the grid voltage, both referred
anode so that a small current is observed. To sup- to the cathode potential. We define Ik = Ig + Ia
press the current flow a small negative voltage must where Ik , Ia and Ig are the cathode, anode and grid
be applied. The current through the diode I follows currents, respectively. Ia and Ig are directed into
V
the device.
I = I 0 · e ET , (1) For the introduction of a grid between anode and
with anode voltage V , thermal voltage ET (in Volt) cathode it is a common prospect to replace the three-
and current I0 at zero voltage. terminal triode by a two-terminal one [4], where an
electrode with the effective voltage is placed at the
2.1.2. Space-Charge Current grids’ position,
When a positive voltage is applied from anode to
cathode, the emitted electrons are pulled by the an- Va
Veff = Vg + . (3)
ode and the current flow increases. But only a part µ
of the emitted electrons reach the anode. Most of
The amplification factor µ expresses how much
them have only low velocity, they stay near the hot
higher the cathode current is influenced by the grid
cathode and form the space charge, a cloud of nega-
than by the anode voltage. As for the diode we speak
tive charges. These (negative) charges screen the an-
of the space-charge region and the cathode current
ode and obstruct subsequent electrons to continue to
is calculated analog to equation (2),
the anode. The resulting current is self-limited and
depends on the anode voltage. This is expressed by 3
Ik = G · (Veff ) 2 , Veff > 0. (4)
the Langmuir-Child equation
3
I = G · V 2, V > 0, (2) Equation (4) is valid for the “normal” operating con-
dition of triodes: the grid is slightly more negative
with perveance G, a constant that only depends on than the cathode, but the anode voltage is very high
the geometrical construction of the tube. (e.g. Vg = −2 V and Va = 300 V). The grid draws
no current and consequentially anode and cathode
2.1.3. Saturation Current
current are equal, i.e. Ig = 0 and Ia = Ik .
Beyond a certain voltage the current saturates. All
emitted electrons are drawn to the anode and the 2.2.1. Grid Current
current remains nearly constant when the external As a special case we have to consider the opera-
voltage is increased further. tion with positive grid voltage. Since a positive grid
now likewise attracts electrons, a positive current same manufacturer may show up to 20 % deviation
Ig arises and hence the cathode current divides into from each other. Exemplary measurements are dis-
anode and grid current. In most applications this is cussed e.g. in [9, 10]. Comparing tubes from current
an unwanted effect because the flow of grid current production, new old stock (NOS) or used ones will
introduces additional distortions, but it can be ob- reveal high variations of the electrical characteristics
served in guitar amplifier designs where it leads to - and explain why they “sound” differently.
effects like the blocking distortion [6, 7]. For a cor-
3.1. Measurements
rect simulation the inclusion of the grid current can
To have reliable reference data, numerous measure-
play an important role, especially if coupled stages
ments on common standard triodes (12AX7, 12AU7
in a cascade are examined.
and 12AT7) were performed by the authors. The
The primary-grid-current law [5, 8] gives an approxi- first measurements were done manually, see [2], what
mation of the grid current. The basic concept is that turned out to be a highly time-consuming procedure.
the electron paths inside a tube depend only on the The measurements in this study were executed using
ratio of anode and grid voltages but not on their an automated setup. Grid and anode current were
amplitudes. Thus the division into grid and anode measured at the same time in good resolution for a
current has to be a function of the voltage ratio, a fine mesh of discrete Vg and Va voltages. The meters
consideration that was affirmed by experiments. In were arranged in a way that the voltages were cap-
Spangenberg’s book [5] we find the equation tured correctly. The specifications for 12AX7 triodes
s were: Va =20 V to 300 V in steps of 20 V with an ac-
Ia Va Va curacy of ±100 mV and Vg =−4 V to 3 V in steps of
=δ , > 0.8, Vg > 0 (5) 100 mV with an accuracy of ±10 mV. For other tri-
Ig Vg Vg
odes the Vg range was adapted to capture the signif-
with the constant δ, the current-division factor. For icant area of operation. All currents were measured
the grid current follows with an accuracy of 100 nA. The constraints given
by maximum power consumption Pmax and maxi-
1 mum cathode current Ik,max were respected.
Ig = Ik · q , Vg > 0. (6)
1 + δ VVag
3.2. Observations on the Current Measurements
Figure 1 opposes qualitatively a measurement from
2.2.2. Secondary Emission an old 12AX7 tube (RSD) and Langmuir-Child’s
When an accelerated electron strikes an electrode, law. While the measurement in principle follows
new electrons can be expelled from it. This effect is the formula, two differences are visible: First, the
called secondary emission. Regarding triodes with theoretic 32 -exponent does not fit perfectly for real
negative grid this has marginal consequence, because triodes, see 1(a). In the plotted example, the slope
the anode has the most positive potential and all of the measured curve is lower, representing an ex-
secondary electrons formed at the anode will fly back ponent < 1.5.
to it. For the positive grid, secondary electrons may
The second difference can be found in the lower part
originate from the grid, too, and will be attracted by
of the curve. Equation (4) yields Ik = 0 for Veff =
the anode or even, if the grid is more positive than
0, and is not defined for voltages Veff < 0. The
the anode, the other way around. Deviations for
measurement offers a small current for this case and
practical tubes from equation (6) can be explained
a smooth transition towards zero current. This is
to a large extent by this effect.
depicted in Figure 1(b), where the highlighted region
tags the range Veff < 0.
3. PRACTICAL TUBES
Real tubes depart occasionally clearly from the ide- Equation (6) states that the grid current Ig depends
alized formulations given in Section 2 or the man- both on Vg and Va . Examining the considered work-
ufacturer’s data sheets. Degeneration, aging effects ing range we find that this is not true for all types
or small constructive variations have influence on the of triodes. Figure 2 illustrates the dependency for
characteristics. Even tubes from the same type and 12AX7 and 12AT7 tubes. Plotted are the Ig = f (Va )
8 3
Ig in mA →
1.5
anode current in mA →
anode current in mA →
12AX7/ECC83
6 1
2 0.5
4 0
1 20 60 100 140 180 220 260 300
2
Va in V →
Ig in mA →
0 4
12AT7/ECC81
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
2
Va in V → Va in V →
(a) exponent variation (b) Veff < 0 range 0
20 60 100 140 180 220 260 300
Fig. 1: Anode current calculated with Langmuir- Va in V →
Childs formula (dotted) and measurements from a
RSD 12AX7 triode (solid) in a qualitative plot. Fig. 2: Grid current as a function of Va for different
triode exemplars for Vg = 0.5 V, 1 V and 1.5 V.
No Label Condition G µ γ F Cg δ ζ
1 Valvo (GER) old, used 2.85E-3 92.67 1.065 189.1 55.16 0.889 -1.534
2 Telefunken (GER) old, used 5.07E-3 89.23 1.227 231.4 101.30 0.859 -1,623
3 Ei (CZ) new 2.69E-3 60.53 1.237 256.9 236.6 0.698 -1,542
No Label Condition G µ γ F Cg δ ζ
1 TAD new 1.77E-3 21.18 1.319 103.1 66.27 0.411 -1.517
2 EGRO old, used 1.52E-3 21.92 1.300 69.0 143.30 0.670 -1.441
3 JJ (CZ) new 8.80E-4 18.49 1.528 93.4 54.05 0.747 -1.388
14
anode current in mA →
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
-4 -2 0 2 -4 -2 0 2 20 60 100 140 180 220 260 300
grid voltage in V → grid voltage in V → anode voltage in V →
grid current in mA →
Va = 40 V Va = 80 V
6 Vg = −2 V, −1 V, 0 V, 1 V and 2 V
Va = 120 V Va = 160 V
0
-4 -2 0 2 -4 -2 0 2 20 60 100 140 180 220 260 300
grid voltage in V → grid voltage in V → anode voltage in V →
Fig. 7: Comparison of different triode models as grid family (left) and plate family characteristics (right).
Shown are Koren’s approach (dotted), Cohen and Helie (dashed) and the new model (solid). The discrete
measurement points are marked with ◦.
drop across Rg . As the plots illustrate the waveforms given in Figure 10.
are replicated satisfactorily.
7. CONCLUSION
6.2.2. Distortion Analysis A new triode description was presented, featuring a
Time signal comparisons give only limited informa- good replication of the grid current and physically-
tion on how good a simulation performs. A signif- motivated formulations. The equations are mainly
icant measure is the harmonic content of the out- based on the Langmuir-Child’s and the current-
put. The exponential sweep technique [16] was used division law. Free parameters were used to perform
to compute the introduced distortion both for ref- an individual fitting to measurement data of prac-
erence system and simulation of the CCA circuit. tical triodes. It was shown, that the equations are
Figure 10 shows the harmonic distortions of the dis- able to characterize the properties of real tubes in
cussed circuit. The installed tube in this plot was good accordance. Furthermore, an alternative ver-
an old Telefunken 12AT7. As the plots illustrate, sion for linear triodes was proposed. Based on the
the simulation using an individual model achieves a descriptions, SPICE models were implemented.
high similarity to the measurements.
To prove the suitability for the simulation of audio
The same procedure was repeated with a NOS circuits, the models were embedded in a typical tube
“Neuhaus” 12AX7. Reference measurements and preamplifier. Reference measurements and simula-
simulation results using the alternative approach are tion results for time and frequency domain were pre-
Ig
6
Ig
Ig
3 50 150 100
0 25 100
-3 50 50
0
-6 -25 0 0
Vg in V →
Ig
Ig
Ig
0 0 0
-1 -2.5 -5 -4
-2 -5
-10 -8
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 1 2 3 4 5
time in ms → time in ms → time in ms → time in ms →
Fig. 9: Ig (top) and Vg (bottom) for the CCA. From left to right: 4 kHz/1 V, 4 kHz/4 V, 4 kHz/8 V, and
500 Hz/8 V with measurements (blue) and simulations (dashed black). The installed tube was a RSD 12AX7.
sented and showed a good match. [9] M. Zollner, Physik der Elektrogitarre,
(preprint), Regensburg, 2010.
8. REFERENCES [10] A. Potchinkov, Simulation von
Röhrenverstärkern mit SPICE, Vieweg +
[1] J. Pakarinen and D. T. Yeh, “A review of digi-
Teubner, 1st edition, 2009.
tal techniques for modeling vacuum-tube guitar
amplifiers,” Computer Music Journal, vol. 33, [11] N. Koren, “Improved vt models for spice simu-
no. 2, pp. 85–100, Summer 2009. lations,” Glass Audio, vol. 5, pp. 18–27, 1996.
[2] K. Dempwolf and U. Zölzer, “A physically- [12] M. Konar, “Vacuum tube parameter iden-
motivated triode model for circuit simulations,” tification using computer methods,” [online],
in Proc. 14th Int. Conf. Digital Audio Effects http://www.birotechnology.com, 1998.
(DAFx-11), Paris, Sept. 19–23 2011.
[13] G. C. Cardarilli, M. Re, and L. Di Carlo, “Im-
[3] H. Reich, Principles of Electron Tubes, McGraw proved large-signal model for vacuum triodes,”
Hill, 1st edition, 1941. in IEEE International Symposium on Circuits
and Systems (ISCAS), 2009, pp. 3006–3009.
[4] H. Barkhausen, Lehrbuch der Elektronenröhren
und ihrer technischen Anwendungen, Verlag S. [14] I. Cohen and T. Helie, “Measures and parame-
Hirzel, Leipzig, 1945. ter estimation of triodes, for the real-time sim-
ulation of a multi-stage guitar preamplifier,” in
[5] K. Spangenberg, Vacuum Tubes, McGraw Hill, Proc. 129th AES Convention, San Francisco,
1942. USA, Nov 4-7 2010, number 8219.
[6] M. Blencowe, Designing Tube Preamps for Gui- [15] H. Kniekamp, “Die Abweichungen der
tar and Bass, Blencowe, 2009. Verstärkerröhrenkennlinien vom e3/2 -Gesetz,”
[7] R. Aiken, “What is blocking distortion?,” Telegraphen- und Fernsprechtechnik, vol. 20, no.
[online], www.aikenamps.com/ BlockingDistor- 3, pp. 71–76, 1931.
tion.html, 1999. [16] A. Farina, “Simultaneous measurement of im-
pulse response and distortion with a swept-sine
[8] F. Tank, “Zur Kenntnis der Vorgänge in
technique,” in 108th AES Convention, Paris,
Elektronenröhren,” Jahrbuch drahtl. Telegr. u.
France, Feb. 19-24 2000.
Teleph., vol. 20, pp. 80, 1922.
|H| in dB →
|H| in dB →
0 0
-20 -20
-40 -40
|H| in dB →
|H| in dB →
0 0
-20 -20
-40 -40
Fig. 10: Harmonic distortion analysis of the CCA driven with an old Telefunken 12AT7 triode. Measure-
ments (left) and simulations (right) for amplitudes 1 V (top) and 28 V (bottom). Shown are the fundamental
(black), odd (dashed gray) and even order harmonic responses (dotted) up to 4th order.
|H| in dB →
|H| in dB →
0 0
-20 -20
-40 -40
|H| in dB →
|H| in dB →
0 0
-20 -20
-40 -40
Fig. 11: Harmonic distortion analysis of the CCA driven with a NOS Neuhaus 12AX7 triode. Measurements
(left) and simulations (right) for amplitudes 1 V (top) and 28 V (bottom). Shown are the fundamental (black),
odd (dashed gray) and even order harmonic responses (dotted) up to 4th order.