Control grid

The control grid is an electrode used in thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) used to modulate the flow of electrons in the cathode to anode or plate circuit.

Operation

A relatively small variation in voltage on the control grid causes a significantly large variation in anode current. The presence of a resistor in the anode circuit causes a large variation in voltage to appear at the anode. Thus the device will function as an amplifier.

The addition of just a single control grid to a diode valve produces a triode.

Construction

The grid in the first triode valve consisted of a zig-zag piece of wire placed between the filament and the anode. This quickly evolved into a helical grid placed between a single strand filament (or later, a cylindrical cathode) and a cylindrical anode. The grid is usually made of a very thin wire that can resist high temperatures and is not prone to emitting electrons itself. Molybdenum alloy with a gold plating is frequently used. It is wound on soft copper sideposts, which are swaged over the grid windings to hold them in place. A 1950s variation is the frame grid, which winds very fine wire onto a rigid stamped metal frame. This allows the holding of very close tolerances, so the grid can be placed closer to the filament (or cathode).

Effects of grid position

By placing the control grid closer to the filament/cathode relative to the anode, a greater amplification results. This degree of amplification is referred to in valve data sheets as the amplification factor. It also results in higher transconductance, which is a measure of the anode current change versus grid voltage change. The noise figure of a valve is inversely proportional to its transconductance; higher transconductance generally means lower noise figure. Lower noise can be very important when designing a radio or television receiver.

Multiple control grids

A valve can contain more than one control grid. The hexode contains two such grids, one for a received signal and one for the signal from a local oscillator. The valve's inherent non-linearity causes not only both original signals to appear in the anode circuit, but also the sum and difference of those signals. This can be exploited as a frequency-changer in superheterodyne receivers.

Grid variations

A variation of the control grid is to produce the helix with a variable pitch. This gives the resultant valve a distinct non-linear characteristic. This is often exploited in R.F. amplifiers where an alteration of the grid bias changes the mutual conductance and hence the gain of the device. This variation usually appears in the pentode form of the valve, where it is then called a variable-mu pentode or remote-cutoff pentode.

One of the principal limitations of the triode valve is that there is a capacitance between the grid and the anode. A phenomenon known as the Miller Effect causes this capacitance to be magnified in proportion to the amplification factor of the valve. This can severely limit the upper operating frequency. This can be overcome by the addition of a screen grid, however in the later years of the tube era, constructional techniques were developed that rendered this 'parasitic capacitance' so low that triodes operating in the upper VHF bands became possible. The Mullard EC91 operated at up to 250 MHz.

References

• [1] (regarding variable mu)