4.2. Válvulas de vacío EN

Vacuum tubes

Use

As basic components of electronic circuit, they can take part in many different processes: detection of electromagnetic waves, amplification and rectification of electric currents, etc.

Description

In all the cases, independently of its use and complexity, they consist of two electrodes locked in a glass container which has been vacuumed inside.

This simple disposition is known as vacuum diode or vacuum tube. Very often, other metallic grids are added. This way, more complex devices are formed: triodes, tetrodes, pentodes etc.

Functioning

All these devices are based on the so called thermionic effect or Edison effect: The emission of electrons due to the heating of a metal.

The cathode of the valve is a metallic filament, so it is a good electric conductor. When the electric current goes through it, its temperature increases (Joule effect) and some of the conduction electrons take enough energy to leave the surface. The amount of electrons emitted and, consequently, the intensity of the current that moves around the valve, depends on the working temperature and the difference of potential applied between the anode and the cathode.

If you place additional grids between these electrodes we can get that the intensity of the current is reduced or cancelled. This will depend on the use we give to the device.

History

The first diode was invented by John Ambrose Fleming in 1904 (as a detector of radio waves) and the first triode on 4^th March, 1906, by the Austrian physicist Robert von Lieben. However, the present design was made by the American Lee De Forest, who registered his patent on 29^th January, 1907.

The wide variety of the applications of the triode made possible the development of others types of vacuum lamps such as the tetrode, developed by the German physicist Walter H. Schottky in 1916 and the pentode, invented by the Dutch Gilles Holst and Bernardus Dominicus Hubertus Tellegen, in 1926.