For other types of frequency converters please, see Frequency mixer.
Basic heptode-based self-oscillating pentagrid converter circuits. Top: Indirectly-heated variant Bottom: Directly-heated variant, which requires the cathode to be groundedGrids of a 12SA7GT pentagrid converter, showing all five grids
The pentagrid was part of a line of development of valves that were able to take an incoming RF signal and change its frequency to a fixed intermediate frequency, which was then amplified and detected in the remainder of the receiver circuitry. The device was generically referred to as a frequency changer or just mixer.
Origins
The first devices designed to change frequency in the manner described above seem to have been developed by the French, who simply put two grids into what would otherwise have been an ordinary triode valve (the bi-grille or bi-grid). Although technically a four electrode device, neither the term tetrode nor the tetrode valve as it is known today had yet appeared. The bi-grid differed from the later tetrode because the second (outer) grid was coarsely wound compared with the tetrode's screen grid which had to be finely wound to provide its screening effect.[1] Each grid was able to accept one of the incoming signals, and the non-linearity of the device produced the sum and difference frequencies. The valve would have been very inefficient, but, most importantly, the capacitive coupling between the two grids would have been very large. It would therefore have been quite impossible to prevent the signal from one grid coupling out of the other. At least one reference claims that the bi-grille was self-oscillating, but this has not been confirmed.
In 1918, Edwin Armstrong used only triodes when he invented the superheterodyne receiver. One triode operated in a conventional oscillator circuit. Another triode acted as a mixer by coupling the oscillator signal into the mixer's cathode and the received signal to the grid. The sum and difference frequencies were then available in the mixer's anode circuit. Once again, the problem of coupling between the circuits would be ever present.
Shortly after Armstrong invented the superheterodyne, a triode mixer stage design was developed that not only mixed the incoming signal with the local oscillator, but the same valve doubled as the oscillator. This was known as the autodyne mixer. Early examples had difficulty oscillating across the frequency range because the oscillator feedback was via the first intermediate frequencytransformer primary tuning capacitor, which was too small to give good feedback. Keeping the oscillator signal out of the antenna circuit was also difficult.
The invention of the tetrode demonstrated the idea of screening electrodes from each other by using additional earthed (grounded) grids (at least, as far as the signal was concerned). In 1926, Philips invented a technique of adding yet another grid to combat the secondary emission that the tetrode suffered from. All the ingredients for the pentagrid were now in place.
Pentagrid
Circuit symbol of a heptode
The development of the pentagrid or heptode (seven-electrode) valve was a novel development in the mixer story. The idea was to produce a single valve that not only mixed the oscillator signal and the received signal and produced its own oscillator signal at the same time but, importantly, did the mixing and the oscillating in different parts of the same valve.
The invention of the device at first sight doesn't seem to be obscure, but it would appear that it was developed in both America and the United Kingdom, more or less at the same time. However, the UK device is different from its American counterpart.
It is known that Donald G. Haines of RCA applied for a patent for the pentagrid on 28 March 1933 (subsequently granted on 29 March 1939) under US patent number 2,148,266. The pentagrid also featured in a UK patent (GB426802) granted on 10 April 1935. However, the Ferranti company of Great Britain entered the valve business with the first known UK-produced pentagrid, the VHT4, late in 1933 (though it must have been in development, and would certainly have existed as a prototype well before that time).
The pentagrid proved to be a much better mixer. Since the oscillator circuit was more or less self-contained, good feedback for reliable oscillation across the frequency range was easy to obtain. Some manufacturers that had adopted the autodyne mixer converted some, if not all, of their designs to pentagrid mixers.
What was the goal to develop a reliable self-oscillating mixer? The reasons were to differ from the UK to America. The UK radio manufacturers had to pay a royalty of £1 per valve holder to the British Valve Association to cover use of their members' patent rights. Further, they dictated that not more than one electrode structure could be contained in a single envelope (which would have evaded the royalty - at least in part). The Americans appeared to be driven by the desire to produce a low-cost 'every expense spared' design which was to lead to the All American Five. By making the mixer self-oscillate, the necessity of providing a separate oscillator valve is avoided. The All American Five was to use a pentagrid converter from when it first appeared in 1934, right up until valves became obsolete when transistors took over.
In the UK, the five grids operated thus. Grid 1 acted as the oscillator grid in conjunction with grid 2 which acted as its anode. Grid 4 accepted the incoming signal with the remaining two grids, 3 and 5 connected together (usually internally) which acted as screen grids to screen the anode, grid 4 and grid 2 from each other. Because grid 2 was a 'leaky' anode in that it allowed part of the modulated electron stream through, the oscillator was coupled into the mixing section of the valve. In fact, in some designs, grid 2 consisted of just the support rods, the actual grid wire itself being omitted.
In America, the configuration was different. Grid 1 acted as the oscillator grid as before, but in this case, grids 2 and 4 were connected together (again usually internally). Grid 2 functioned as both a screen and the oscillator anode; in this case the grid wire had to be present to provide the screening. Grid 3 accepted the incoming signal. Grid 4 screened this from the anode, and grid 5 was a suppressor grid to suppress secondary emission. This configuration limited the oscillator design to one where the oscillator 'anode' was operated from the HT+ (B+) rail. This was often accomplished by using a Hartley Oscillator circuit and taking the cathode to the tap on the coil.
The UK version would have had significant secondary emission and would also have had a tetrode kink. This was exploited in providing the non linearity necessary to produce good sum and difference signals. The American devices although having no secondary emission due to the suppressor grid, nevertheless were able to get the required non linearity by biasing the oscillator such that the valve was overdriven. The American version was also a little more sensitive because the grid that accepted the signal was closer to the cathode increasing the amplification factor.
The pentagrid converter in either guise operated extremely well, but it suffered from the limitation that a strong signal was able to 'pull' the oscillator frequency away from a weaker signal. This was not considered a major problem in broadcast receivers where the signals were likely to be strong, but it became a problem when trying to receive weak signals that were close to strong signals. Some short wave radios managed quite satisfactorily with these devices. Special high frequency versions appeared after World War II for the 100MHz FM bands. Examples are the 6SB7Y (1946) and the 6BA7 (1948). The pulling effect had a beneficial side effect in that it gave a degree of automatic tuning.
Another disadvantage was that in spite of the presence of the screen grids, the electron beam, modulated by the oscillator electrodes, still had to pass through the signal grid, and coupling of the oscillator into the signal circuit was inevitable. The American Federal Communications Commission (FCC) started requiring radio manufacturers to certify that their products avoided this interference under Part 15 of their rules. In the UK, the Postmaster General (who was responsible for radio licensing at this time), laid down a set of stringent rules concerning radio interference.
Hexode
Circuit symbol of a hexode
The hexode (six-electrode) was actually developed after the heptode or pentagrid. It was developed in Germany as a mixer but was designed from the start to be used with a separate triode oscillator. Thus the grid configuration was grid 1, signal input; grids 2 and 4 screen grids (connected together - again, usually internally) and grid 3 was the oscillator input. The device had no suppressor grid. A major advantage was that by using grid 1 as the signal input grid, the device was more sensitive to weak signals.
It was not long before the triode and hexode structures were placed in the same glass envelope - by no means a new idea. The triode grid was usually internally connected to the hexode grid 3, but this practice was dropped in later designs when the mixer section operated as a straight IF amplifier in AM/FM sets when operating on FM, the mixing being carried out in a dedicated FM frequency changing section.
The UK manufacturers were initially unable to use this type of mixer because of the BVA prohibition on multiple structures (and indeed unwilling to use separate valves because of the levy). One UK company, MOV, successfully enforced the cartel rules against the German Lissen company in 1934 when they attempted to market a radio in the UK which had the triode-hexode mixer.
Following pressure from the UK manufacturers, the BVA were compelled to relax the rules and the UK started to adopt triode-hexode mixers. The Mullard ECH35 was a popular choice.
One company, Osram, made an ingenious move. One of their popular pentagrid converter designs was the MX40, initially marketed in 1934. They put on sale in 1936, the X41 triode-hexode frequency changer. The clever bit was that the X41 was a direct plug-in pin-compatible replacement for the MX40. Thus a pentagrid radio could easily be converted to a triode-hexode without any other circuit modifications.
America never really adopted the triode-hexode and it was seldom used, even though the 6K8 triode-hexode was available to manufacturers in 1938.
In some designs, a suppressor grid was added to produce yet another heptode design. Mullard's ECH81 became popular with the move to miniature nine-pin valves.
Octode
Octode-based pentagrid converter circuit
Although not strictly a pentagrid (in that it has more than five grids), the octode (eight-electrode) nevertheless operates on the pentagrid principle. It resulted simply from the addition of an extra screen grid to the UK version of the pentagrid heptode. This was done mainly to improve the antenna/oscillator separation and to reduce the power consumption for use in radio sets operated by dry-cell batteries that were becoming increasingly popular.
In North America, the only octode manufactured was the 7A8. Introduced by Sylvania in 1939 (and used mostly by Philco), this valve was the product of adding a suppressor grid to type 7B8, which was the loctal version of type 6A7. Adding the suppressor allowed Sylvania to lower the current of the 6.3-volt heater from 320 milliamperes[2] to 150 milliamperes[3] while maintaining the same conversion transconductance (550 microsiemens). This allowed Philco to use this valve in every line of radio throughout the 1940s.
The Philips EK3 octode was designated as a "beam octode". The novel part about the design was that grids 2 and 3 were constructed as beam-forming plates. This was done in such a way that Philips claimed that the oscillator electron beam and the mixer electron beams were separated as much as possible and thus the pulling effect was minimised.[4] No information is available as to the degree of success. The manufacturer's information also notes that the valve's high performance comes at a cost of a high heater current of 600 mA – double that of more conventional types.
The use of a pentode would seem an unlikely choice for a frequency converter because it only has one control grid. However, during the Great Depression, many American radio manufacturers used pentode types 6C6, 6D6, 77 and 78 in their lowest priced AC/DC receivers because they were cheaper than pentagrid type 6A7. In these circuits, the suppressor (grid 3) acted as the oscillator grid, and the valve operated in a similar manner to a true pentagrid.
One UK company, Mazda/Ediswan, produced a triode-pentode frequency changer, the AC/TP. Designed for low-cost AC radios, the device was deliberately designed to allow strong signals to pull the oscillator without the risk of radiating the oscillator signal from the aerial. The cathode was common to both sections of the valve. The cathode was connected to a secondary coil on the oscillator coil and thus coupled the oscillator into the pentode mixer section, the signal being applied to grid 1 in the conventional manner. The AC/TP was one of the AC/ range of valves designed for low-cost radios. They were considered durable for their time (even the AC/TP frequency changer, which was normally troublesome). Any AC/ valves encountered today are likely to be brand new as service shops stocked up on spares which were seldom required.
Nomenclature
In order to distinguish between the two versions of the heptode, manufacturers data often describes them as "heptode of the hexode type" for a heptode without a suppressor grid, and a "heptode of the octode type", where a suppressor grid is present.
A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode). Developed from Lee De Forest's 1906 Audion, a partial vacuum tube that added a grid electrode to the thermionic diode, the triode was the first practical electronic amplifier and the ancestor of other types of vacuum tubes such as the tetrode and pentode. Its invention helped make amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony possible. Triodes were widely used in consumer electronics devices such as radios and televisions until the 1970s, when transistors replaced them. Today, their main remaining use is in high-power RF amplifiers in radio transmitters and industrial RF heating devices. In recent years there has been a resurgence in demand for low power triodes due to renewed interest in tube-type audio systems by audiophiles who prefer the sound of tube-based electronics.
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve, or tube is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
A tetrode is a vacuum tube having four active electrodes. The four electrodes in order from the centre are: a thermionic cathode, first and second grids, and a plate. There are several varieties of tetrodes, the most common being the screen-grid tube and the beam tetrode. In screen-grid tubes and beam tetrodes, the first grid is the control grid and the second grid is the screen grid. In other tetrodes one of the grids is a control grid, while the other may have a variety of functions.
A valve amplifier or tube amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that uses vacuum tubes to increase the amplitude or power of a signal. Low to medium power valve amplifiers for frequencies below the microwaves were largely replaced by solid state amplifiers in the 1960s and 1970s. Valve amplifiers can be used for applications such as guitar amplifiers, satellite transponders such as DirecTV and GPS, high quality stereo amplifiers, military applications and very high power radio and UHF television transmitters.
In particle physics, secondary emission is a phenomenon where primary incident particles of sufficient energy, when hitting a surface or passing through some material, induce the emission of secondary particles. The term often refers to the emission of electrons when charged particles like electrons or ions in a vacuum tube strike a metal surface; these are called secondary electrons. In this case, the number of secondary electrons emitted per incident particle is called secondary emission yield. If the secondary particles are ions, the effect is termed secondary ion emission. Secondary electron emission is used in photomultiplier tubes and image intensifier tubes to amplify the small number of photoelectrons produced by photoemission, making the tube more sensitive. It also occurs as an undesirable side effect in electronic vacuum tubes when electrons from the cathode strike the anode, and can cause parasitic oscillation.
The control grid is an electrode used in amplifying thermionic valves such as the triode, tetrode and pentode, used to control the flow of electrons from the cathode to the anode (plate) electrode. The control grid usually consists of a cylindrical screen or helix of fine wire surrounding the cathode, and is surrounded in turn by the anode. The control grid was invented by Lee De Forest, who in 1906 added a grid to the Fleming valve to create the first amplifying vacuum tube, the Audion (triode).
A suppressor grid is a wire screen used in a thermionic valve to suppress secondary emission. It is also called the antidynatron grid, as it reduces or prevents dynatron oscillations. It is located between the screen grid and the plate electrode (anode). The suppressor grid is used in the pentode vacuum tube, so called because it has five concentric electrodes: cathode, control grid, screen grid, suppressor grid, and plate, and also in other tubes with more grids, such as the hexode. The suppressor grid and pentode tube were invented in 1926 by Gilles Holst and Bernard D. H. Tellegen at Phillips Electronics.
In electronics, the dynatron oscillator, invented in 1918 by Albert Hull at General Electric, is an obsolete vacuum tube electronic oscillator circuit which uses a negative resistance characteristic in early tetrode vacuum tubes, caused by a process called secondary emission. It was the first negative resistance vacuum tube oscillator. The dynatron oscillator circuit was used to a limited extent as beat frequency oscillators (BFOs), and local oscillators in vacuum tube radio receivers as well as in scientific and test equipment from the 1920s to the 1940s but became obsolete around World War 2 due to the variability of secondary emission in tubes.
A beam tetrode, sometimes called a beam power tube, is a type of vacuum tube or thermionic valve that has two grids and forms the electron stream from the cathode into multiple partially collimated beams to produce a low potential space charge region between the anode and screen grid to return anode secondary emission electrons to the anode when the anode potential is less than that of the screen grid. Beam tetrodes are usually used for power amplification, from audio frequency to radio frequency. The beam tetrode produces greater output power than a triode or pentode with the same anode supply voltage. The first beam tetrode marketed was the Marconi N40, introduced in 1935. Beam tetrodes manufactured and used in the 21st century include the 4CX250B, KT66 and variants of the 6L6.
A frequency changer or frequency converter is an electronic or electromechanical device that converts alternating current (AC) of one frequency to alternating current of another frequency. The device may also change the voltage, but if it does, that is incidental to its principal purpose, since voltage conversion of alternating current is much easier to achieve than frequency conversion.
A pentode is an electronic device having five electrodes. The term most commonly applies to a three-grid amplifying vacuum tube or thermionic valve that was invented by Gilles Holst and Bernhard D.H. Tellegen in 1926. The pentode was developed from the screen-grid tube or shield-grid tube by the addition of a grid between the screen grid and the plate. The screen-grid tube was limited in performance as an amplifier due to secondary emission of electrons from the plate. The additional grid is called the suppressor grid. The suppressor grid is usually operated at or near the potential of the cathode and prevents secondary emission electrons from the plate from reaching the screen grid. The addition of the suppressor grid permits much greater output signal amplitude to be obtained from the plate of the pentode in amplifier operation than from the plate of the screen-grid tube at the same plate supply voltage. Pentodes were widely manufactured and used in electronic equipment until the 1960s to 1970s, during which time transistors replaced tubes in new designs. During the first quarter of the 21st century, a few pentode tubes have been in production for high power radio frequency applications, musical instrument amplifiers, home audio and niche markets.
In Europe, the principal method of numbering vacuum tubes was the nomenclature used by the Philips company and its subsidiaries Mullard in the UK, Valvo(de, it) in Germany, Radiotechnique (Miniwatt-Dario brand) in France, and Amperex in the United States, from 1934 on. Adhering manufacturers include AEG (de), CdL (1921, French Mazda brand), CIFTE (fr, Mazda-Belvu brand), EdiSwan (British Mazda brand), Lorenz (de), MBLE(fr, nl), RCA (us), RFT(de, sv) (de), Siemens (de), Telefunken (de), Tesla (cz), Toshiba (ja), Tungsram (hu), and Unitra. This system allocated meaningful codes to tubes based on their function and became the starting point for the Pro Electron naming scheme for active devices.
Vacuum tubes produced in the former Soviet Union and in present-day Russia carry their own unique designations. Some confusion has been created in "translating" these designations, as they use Cyrillic rather than Latin characters.
A valve audio amplifier (UK) or vacuum tube audio amplifier (US) is a valve amplifier used for sound reinforcement, sound recording and reproduction.
Ultra-linear electronic circuits are those used to couple a tetrode or pentode vacuum-tube to a load.
A valve RF amplifier or tube amplifier (U.S.) is a device for electrically amplifying the power of an electrical radio frequency signal.
Technical specifications and detailed information on the valve audio amplifier, including its development history.
In the years 1942-1944, the Radio Manufacturers Association used a descriptive nomenclature system for industrial, transmitting, and special-purpose vacuum tubes. The numbering scheme was distinct from both the numbering schemes used for standard receiving tubes, and the existing transmitting tube numbering systems used previously, such as the "800 series" numbers originated by RCA and adopted by many others.
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