tube
in [Design]
|
From: Jim Thompson on 12 Feb 2010 15:16 On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:05:26 -0800, John Larkin <jjlarkin(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote: >On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:26:07 -0800, VWWall <vwall(a)large.invalid> >wrote: > >>John Larkin wrote: >>> On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:16:00 -0600, "Tim Williams" >>> <tmoranwms(a)charter.net> wrote: >>> >>>> So? Light it up and get to work! Should be roughly comparable to a 2N5179, >>>> I'd guess. >>>> http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/homepages/frank/sheets/049/9/955.pdf >>>> Plate resistance is slightly high and Gm noticably low, but capacitance is >>>> quite small and the plate curves look nice (mu and Rp are fairly constant in >>>> the operating range). Offhand, give it a ~20k plate resistor and you'll get >>>> around 7k || 1.4pF = 16.2MHz -3dB point if driven hard (not counting miller >>>> or probe C). Okay, I suppose a 2N5179 will switch faster than that, but in >>>> terms of fundamental performance, once it cuts off at fT, it doesn't really >>>> do anything anymore; with tubes, add some L to cancel the C and you'll get >>>> narrow-band performance for another decade or two. >>> >>> Tubes get killed, eventually, by transit time problems. There were >>> some lighthouse (planar) tubes with really tiny spacings that would >>> work at 3 GHz or some such. It took other tricks, like bunching, to >>> break that limit. >>> >> From an article on "Creative Thinking" by John R. Pierce: >> >>"Another example is provided by the development of the 416A triode. The >>original and startling germ of a creative idea was that after all these >>years a triode might still be the best amplifier for microwaves, if only >>the spacing were close enough and the grid fine enough. An auxiliary >>idea was that close enough spacings could be attained and held by >>grinding the cathode and a surrounding ceramic co-planar, and then >>supporting the grid from the ceramic. These were, however, mere germs of >>an idea. Something real and complete was brought into existence only >>after years of concentrated effort, including the inauguration of a >>program of cathode studies which is still being pursued for other purposes." >> >>I was at Bell Labs while this work was going on. I still have some >>tubes in conventional noval configuration that were used in doing the >>above cathode studies. >> >>Here's an interesting summary of some strange vacuum tubes: >> >>http://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical/ims-2009-microwave-museum.htm > >Cool. I won a science fair prize, ca 1962, which was a trip to Bell >Labs in Murray Hill. Being a poor kid from New Orleans, I had never >flown before. Neither had I ever seen snow or rocks. They put us up at >the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan for the weekend (me and my >high-school physics teacher) and then bussed us to Jersey. > >It was fabulous. Anechoic chambers, lectures on information theory, >plasma jets, cool stuff. I saw what I think was the first LED, and had >lunch with Walter Brattain. > >John So! You ornery old git, you're only 4-5 years younger than I ;-) ...Jim Thompson -- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | AGW proponents are like watermelons... GREEN on the outside, RED on the inside.
From: Jamie on 12 Feb 2010 19:04 John Larkin wrote: > A 955 acorn tube: > > ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/Acorn.JPG > > John > > Yes, we still used them at Semco (capacitors) for the oscillator in the precision reference. Up to the day they closed! which would be like 2 years now.. I think I may have some lying around the house.
From: Robert Baer on 13 Feb 2010 00:30 Robert Baer wrote: > Greegor wrote: >> On Feb 11, 10:43 pm, John Larkin >> <jjlar...(a)highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote: >>> A 955 acorn tube: >>> >>> ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/Acorn.JPG >>> >>> John >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/955_acorn_triode >> >> It doesn't say when these were first made or when they stopped making >> them. >> >> They use a reference book from 1954 though. >> >> I got some surplus computer boards once in the 1970's >> that had some tiny tubes that might have been peanut tubes. >> They layed parallel to the G10 epoxy PC board with >> a small metal holding clip riveted to the G10. >> >> A lady friend made jewelry using some that were >> new and so the glass had no blackening and the >> shiney guts were visible. >> >> The first transister oscillator project I built about 1970 >> (I was 10 or 11) used two old blue CK722's. >> >> I had the specs but had no idea they were >> vintage 1955-1957, about 14 years old or >> that they were such a historical part. >> >> http://transistorhistory.50webs.com/ck722.jpg >> >> http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/the-irresistible-transistor >> >> The Irresistible Transistor >> Fifty years ago this month, a man embraced his inner hobbyist and gave >> thousands of engineers their first transistor >> >> Image: Jack Ward >> >> With this ad, Raytheon Co. introduced the CK722 and slightly better >> CK721 (less noise, higher gain) in 1953. >> >> BY Harry Goldstein // March 2003 >> >> Is it possible to love a transistor? Certainly what Jack Ward feels >> for the Raytheon CK722, the first transistor sold to the general >> public, goes beyond casual affection. He's collected thousands of >> early transistor specimens, including dozens of CK722s. His stately >> yellow Victorian home on a quiet, tree-lined street in Brookline, >> Mass., has a basement crammed with enough code oscillators, Geiger >> counters, radios, hand-wrought circuit boards, transistorized hearing >> aids, subminiature vacuum tubes, diodes, resistors, and capacitors to >> make any collector of vintage electronic gear drool. He's written one >> book about the CK722 and has started another about early transistor >> history at RCA. When he's not working as associate director of quality >> for the Bedford, Mass., facility of gene-chip maker Affymetrix Inc., >> he's busy maintaining his virtualTransistor Museum on the Web and is >> widely acknowledged by fellow collectors as a techno-anthropologist >> par excellence . >> >> "My wife's very supportive, and my younger two children think it's >> fairly amusing, and probably not a bad way to have a mid-life crisis," >> says Ward of his family's reaction to his passionate pursuit of >> transistor history. Far from thinking that his dad's a square, Ward's >> oldest son, Nick, who is pursuing a B.A. in physics, is learning a lot >> from his old man. "Nick can't believe how fast technology changes and >> that the people I talk to have changed the world," adds Ward, who as >> curator of the online museum has shifted his focus from collecting >> early transistors to collecting oral histories from the engineers who >> sparked the Semiconductor Era. >> >> For Ward and the CK722, it was love at first sight. The year was 1959: >> Fidel Castro had just taken Cuba, John F. Kennedy was campaigning for >> U.S. president, Buddy Holly was flying around on what would be his >> last tour, and Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor had both >> filed patent applications for something called an integrated circuit. >> Recalling himself as a boy of 10 marching into his local radio >> distributor and plunking down his allowance for his first transistor, >> Ward [ see photo] taps into the same wonder that gripped him when he >> laid eyes on the CK722, which Raytheon Co. (Lexington, Mass.) made >> available to hobbyists through RadioShack stores starting in March >> 1953. >> >> "They were probably only a couple bucks at the time, but just the >> excitement of actually owning one of these was intense. The package is >> quite spectacular, you know, the actual shape of the device and the >> color," he says. "The blue ones, for instance, the iridescent blue >> color is just gorgeous." >> >> With his new transistor, Ward built a radio, just a simple tuned >> circuit with a germanium diode to detect a signal and a CK722 as an >> audio amplifier. "I turned it on in my room at night after lights out, >> and listened to rock and roll or a baseball game," he says wistfully. >> "For sheer excitement, I can't think of a parallel with another thing >> in technology. I'm tempted to say the PC, but that doesn't quite >> capture it. You see, it's different than that." >> >> Love potion No. 722 >> >> Ward wasn't the only boy smitten. Tens of thousands of CK722s were >> sold between 1953 and the mid-1960s. The irresistible transistor cast >> a spell over even die-hard vacuum tube enthusiasts like Terry Hosking. >> By the ripe old age of 12, Hosking, now a senior application and >> design engineer with SB Electronics Inc. (Barre, Vt.), had concluded >> that vacuum tubes were the only way to go. >> >> "I told some of my relatives that I didn't think that transistors were >> going to amount to much," Hosking told me. "A few weeks later, I got a >> care package from them with a blue CK722 and a Sylvania 2N35 >> transistor and a couple books that showed how to hook them up. I was >> amazed to find that the transistor radio I built would pick up the >> local stations without an external antenna and ground like I had to >> use with the tube radio." >> >> Transistors weren't just sensitive devices, they were the mysterious >> oracles of a new age�"Just a little solid block of black plastic with >> three thin wires sticking out," says Tom Lee, associate professor of >> electrical engineering at Stanford University. Lee started fooling >> around with transistors when he was only five. At that time, in the >> mid-1960s, RadioShack sold "blister packs" of five transistors for a >> dollar. "They were the only transistors a kid could easily obtain with >> saved-up pocket change," he says. "The CK722 is the first recollection >> I have of that transistor type, indeed, of any transistor type at all. >> The things seemed magical." >> >> And messy in a way tinkerers love. Junior engineers constructing >> projects out of transistors and circuit boards had to hone basic shop >> skills: measuring, cutting, drilling, and assembly. "Of course, the >> most important skill to master was soldering," says Bob McGarrah, now >> staff system planning engineer at Central Illinois Light Co. (Peoria, >> Ill.). >> >> What madeleines were to Proust, solder is to McGarrah. "The unique >> smell of the hot flux still brings back happy memories," he says, one >> of which is a of small audio amplifier that he discovered had an >> impedance high enough not to draw a dial tone when connected to a >> telephone line. A huge fan of the TV spy drama "The Man from >> U.N.C.L.E.," young McGarrah used the amplifier to practice his >> surveillance skills by listening in on family members' phone calls. >> >> Connecting on the Internet >> >> Like old high school chums who reunite on Classmates.com and realize >> that they shared a crush on the same girl way back when, Hosking, Lee, >> Ward, McGarrah, and dozens of others linked up on the online auction >> site eBay in the late 1990s and began swapping stories along with >> vintage transistors. >> >> "Old transistor collectors tend to be a small, close-knit bunch," says >> McGarrah, who runs his own transistor history Web site. "The power of >> the Internet to bring together such a narrowly focused group of >> hobbyists is amazing." >> >> Ward concurs: "Without the Internet, none of this interaction would >> really be possible." Inspired by the online communities he saw >> sprouting up around vacuum tubes, Ward decided to use the Internet to >> research the history of early transistor radios. He soon became more >> interested in radio components than the radios themselves, "in how >> these little devices were developed, and what a profound impact they >> had on society." >> >> In 1999, Ward scratched an itch to write and took as his subject his >> first transistor. He began working on The Story of the CK722, and put >> up the http://www.ck722.com Web site. Here he posted the fruits of his >> research�pictures of the CK722 and other early Raytheon transistors, >> charting the 722 through its three case colors, silver, black, and >> that iridescent blue [see " Transistor Family Tree,"]. He also posted >> pictures of old ads, circuit schematics, packages, and devices people >> made with the CK722 that they sent him for his growing collection. >> >> Deep into his yearlong project, Ward attended the Cambridge-based >> Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) monthly hamfest, a >> flea market for the "geek to the max," as he puts it. He made known to >> fellow collectors his eagerness to find out more about the origins of >> his favorite transistor. "Someone mentioned that they thought Raytheon >> had a historian," Ward remembers. "So I called up Raytheon, and sure >> enough, there was one. A gentleman named Norman Krim." >> >> Krim's tale >> >> It turns out that 89-year-old Norm Krim is not only Raytheon's >> archivist, he's a living link to the roots of the electronics >> industry. He's also the father of the CK722 [see photo]. >> >> >> Photo: LARRY VOLK >> >> >> Norman Krim, father of the CK722 that Jack Ward bought as a child, is >> now curator of the Raytheon archives. Here he sits at his kitchen >> table and plays with a CK722 radio made and presented to him by Ward. >> Late one chilly night this past October, as he and I sat in the >> kitchen of his Newton, Mass., home sipping green tea and munching on >> roasted almonds, Krim spun his story. Having been a student of >> Raytheon founder Vannevar Bush at MIT, Krim took a job with his >> mentor's company as an engineer in the receiving tube division in >> 1935. By 1938, Krim had developed subminiature tubes for hearing aids. >> >> The expertise gained in that work earned six patents on the >> subminiature tubes found in the proximity fuses used in U.S. Army >> artillery and antiaircraft shells, credited by some historians with >> turning around the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944. After the war, >> under Krim's steady hand, Raytheon's receiving tube division dominated >> the market for hearing-aid tubes with a 90 percent share through the >> 1940s. >> >> As the industrial war machine was winding down, the semiconductor >> revolution was just revving up. At Raytheon's archives in Lexington, >> the morning after our late night bull session, Krim showed me a >> letter. Dated 9 July 1948, it was addressed to Laurence K. Marshall, >> then president of Raytheon, inviting him to Bell Telephone >> Laboratories Inc. (Murray Hill, N.J.) to see a demonstration of "a new >> device called a Transistor," specifically the point-contact transistor >> invented by Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley. >> Marshall was busy that day and tapped Krim to go in his place. What he >> saw shook him to his very core. >> >> "I was worried that my success had been with tubes, and this was >> threatening my job," Krim recalls. "So what the hell was I going to >> do? I was going to get into transistors." >> >> Krim's crash program eventually led to the introduction of the world's >> first commercially available transistor, the CK703 in 1948, less than >> six months after the Murray Hill demonstration. >> >> But the CK703 had some problems. The germanium point-contact transistor >> �actually two pointed wires, 125 �m in diameter and 25-50 �m apart, in >> contact with the signal-amplifying semiconductor�had to be handmade >> with watchmaker precision, which precluded cost-effective mass >> production. And they were none too robust. The slightest shock could >> ruin them, which made them useless for hearing aids and just about >> everything else. >> >> So Krim shifted gears and leveraged his division's growing expertise >> in semiconductor technology to make germanium diodes, which had a >> ready market as signal detectors in TV sets. By 1950, Raytheon was >> cranking out 20 000 diodes a day and Krim was promoted to vice >> president of the receiving tube division, where the diodes were being >> made. >> >> Double jeopardy >> >> Meanwhile, as germanium diodes and subminiature tubes poured out of >> Raytheon's plants, William Shockley was about to jolt the world again, >> this time with the junction transistor. Krim was fortunate enough to >> room with Shockley for over a week in the spring of 1951, while both >> were serving on a military procurement advisory board known as the >> Baker Committee. >> >> "Shockley would be proofreading a paper after dinner every night. He >> told me, 'I'm going to publish an article in the Physical Review, and >> you should remember, pick up that article.' When I got a copy of his >> article on junction transistors, that was it for me. The light bulb >> went on." And Krim's engineers swung into action. >> >> Their junction transistors were simple devices made of two indium dots >> (emitter and collector) alloyed to either side of a germanium chip. >> But the germanium wasn't pure enough and the initial devices failed. >> Later in 1951, at a symposium conducted by Bell Labs, Krim's team >> learned the value of zone refining: passing an RF coil over a quartz >> tube containing a large block of germanium crystal and melting >> portions of it in sequence. That got the impurities to migrate to the >> end of the ingot, which could then be lopped off, leaving a pure >> crystal behind. >> >> Knowing that quartz tubes were key to making germanium pure enough for >> junction transistors, the crafty Krim cornered the market on quartz >> tubing. "And I did one other thing," he says with a sly smile. "There >> was a company in Missouri called Eagle-Picher, at the time the >> country's biggest zinc refiner. They threw out germanium as a >> byproduct of zinc refining. So I bought it all up." >> >> But as Raytheon prepared to introduce its germanium junction >> transistor, dubbed the CK718, yields stayed stubbornly low. Water >> vapor and other environmental contamination occurring during the >> manufacturing process were to blame. To get around the problem, Krim's >> team used infant incubators as "clean boxes," so technicians wearing >> rubber gloves could reach in and assemble transistors while minimizing >> exposure to ambient conditions. Yields went up, and by the end of >> 1952, Raytheon released 10 000 CK718s to its commercial customers, the >> hearing-aid manufacturers. >> >> Kids' stuff >> >> Still, the manufacturing process wasn't perfect, and Krim was stuck >> with a mound of noisy, low-gain CK718s that weren't good enough for >> hearing aids. Faced with the prospect of destroying thousands of >> rejects, Krim, who a decade later as CEO of RadioShack would sell the >> electronic hobby retailer to leather craft store chain Tandy Corp. >> (Dallas), wondered: could what was scrap to a company be gold to a >> hobbyist? As a youth in the late 1920s, he had built a mechanical TV >> set. It included a radio receiver and a Bakelite disk drilled with 16 >> strategically placed holes to scan a Raytheon Kino neon lamp that >> projected the picture. Resourceful even then, he used his mother's >> milkshake mixer to rotate the disk and obtain an image. >> >> "I thought, jeez, wouldn't these rejects make a hell of a good thing? >> So when the guys wanted to break them up, I said, you can't do that� >> they're worth something," recalls Krim. "I loved to build experimental >> stuff and I just wanted the kids to have these. And nobody had ever >> seen a transistor." >> >> Not even editors of the major electronics publications at the time. So >> in February 1953, Krim invited the editors of all the major >> electronics magazines, including Electronics and the now defunct Radio >> and TV News, to his office for a demonstration of CK718 rejects that >> were relabeled CK722. "Their tongues were hanging out," recollects >> Krim. >> >> From the pens of those amazed editors the word spread about what the >> ordinary hobbyist could do with a transistor. And kids across the >> United States started putting together radios and oscillators and >> speakerphones, a few of which are now enshrined in the Transistor >> Museum. >> >> Infatuation contagion >> >> After visiting the Raytheon archives, Norm and I drove over to Jack's >> house to see the Transistor Museum collection [ see photos]. It was >> the first visit for both of us, and I was curious to see how Norm >> would react to seeing bits of the history he helped create. >> >> Our first stop was the kitchen table, where Jack presented each of us >> with a single-transistor CK722 radio kit he had made especially for >> this occasion. It featured a gleaming silver CK722, a Raytheon CK705 >> germanium diode, an ancient pair of magnetic headphones, a vintage >> comb-tuning capacitor, a variable inductor loopstick to fine-tune >> reception of a station, and, appropriately, two RadioShack AAA >> batteries. >> >> The delight on Norm's face erased 80 years, and for a few minutes he >> was that same precocious boy who'd built his own crude TV. Norm hung >> on Jack's every word as he showed us how he'd converted a double CD >> case into the kit's rudimentary circuit board. I marveled at Jack's >> ingenuity, but was frankly more interested in the components, the >> smooth twisting action of the comb tuning capacitor, the bright red of >> the CK705 diode, and, of course, the beguiling silver CK722, my first >> transistor. >> >> Then we followed Jack down to the basement to see where the virtual >> Transistor Museum makes its real home. >> >> We passed his son's matte-black Alien computer setup and an Altair >> computer resplendent in all of its toggle-switched glory before >> entering the inner sanctum. Here in this meticulously arranged room, >> Jack had everything he needed to make the museum run, including his >> server, scanner, digital camera, and broadband connection. The room >> was lined with shelf after shelf of plastic containers, each packed >> with hundreds of diodes, ICs, transistors, and other devices that Jack >> had bought on eBay. Norm, it's safe to say, was dumbstruck. The father >> of the CK722 was standing in the delivery room of the Semiconductor >> Era. >> >> For an hour, Jack dazzled us with objects and stories that put >> everything we saw in historical context, right down to the dozens of >> packages for different transistors and vacuum tubes he brought out. He >> discussed the nuances of different transistors, identified according >> to year and lot number, and how, precisely, they were stamped. He >> displayed handmade gadgets people had sent him for his collection, >> including a one-transistor radio on a wooden board made by Terry >> Hosking, which, with its beautifully hand-wound antenna coil, looks >> like something you might see in a SoHo art gallery [see photo]. >> >> Jack placed tiny chips of germanium in our hands, revealing the >> mystery at the heart of the junction transistor. And he told Norm what >> a marketing genius he was for maintaining the CK722's brand identity >> for so long. As Raytheon got better at making transistors, they got >> smaller. While Norm could have housed the devices in a smaller >> package, that would have changed the look and the form factor of a >> familiar friend to hobbyists. So Norm potted the smaller transistors >> in the same size package and extended the CK722's brand life. >> >> And while it might sound as if the hobbyist version of the Stockholm >> syndrome had set in, as I stood there listening to the stories flowing >> back and forth between Jack and Norm, one archivist to another, the >> warm fuzzies came on, my own love for the CK722 blossoming right there >> in Jack Ward's basement. >> >> To Probe Further >> To visit Jack Ward's Transistor Museum on the Web, see the site at >> http://www.transistormuseum.com. >> >> The original CK722 site is at >> >> http://www.ck722.com. >> >> For Bob's Virtual Transistor Museum and History Web Site, go to >> http://users.arczip.com/rmcgarra1. > "A couple of bucks"??? > Bullsh*t! > The first time i saw the CK722 on the market, the price was $12 - way > too much for mere curiosity to justify. > I waited past at least two price drops and bought my first one at $199 > and a few weeks later kicked myself as the price dropped to the $0.99 > level, where it stayed. OOPS! That should have had the flyspec in to make it 1.99 .
From: Robert Baer on 13 Feb 2010 00:34 John Larkin wrote: > On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:48:46 -0600, "Tim Williams" > <tmoranwms(a)charter.net> wrote: > >> "Tim Wescott" <tim(a)seemywebsite.com> wrote in message >> news:0_CdnWT3Qt5s4OjWnZ2dnUVZ_jdi4p2d(a)web-ster.com... >>> The packaging details make it very hard to keep stable -- the inner >>> element's gain goes up to UHF or higher, and those wires start looking >>> awfully inductive. AFAIK "pencil" tubes and lighthouse triodes were >>> designed in large part to be a better mechanical fit to coaxial cavities. >> Don't forget nuvistors. :) >> >> And then there's these guys; >> http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/Images/Raytheon%20RK-707B.jpg >> although now we are actually talking electron drift and bunching. I've >> always wondered if I could operate this thing as a planar tetrode though. >> S'pose I should try some time. I don't have the equipment to detect >> microwave oscillations if it misbehaves though. >> >>> Which is why tubes are still king for really high power VHF and microwave >>> stuff. Uneasy on the throne, though. >> Y'think magnetrons will be around forever? >> >> GaN and etc. would have to get pretty damn cheap to offset them. >> >> Tim > > This is a great book, > > http://www.amazon.com/Inventor-Pilot-Russell-Sigurd-Varian/dp/0870152378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265994854&sr=1-1 > > written by Russel Varian's widow. All about California in the 1930s, > early aviation, the invention of the klystron, and even has a villain, > Frederick Terman. > > I see that new copies are going for $150. Mine is signed by Dorothy > herself! > > John > > Is there anything in there about the pet anteater?
First
|
Prev
|
Pages: 1 2 3 4 Prev: White LED appropriate for illumination? Next: Anyone imported/export WinQCad <-> OrCad? |