Vacuum tube - transconductance

Description

In electronics, a vacuum tube, an electron tube, or colloquially a tube (North America) or valve (British usage), 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 valve uses the phenomenon of thermionic emission of electrons from a heated cathode and is used for a 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.

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 shown.