[ARC5] Solid State 6AL5

[Richard Knoppow]

    Thank you, this makes more sense now.

On 2/6/2018 1:28 PM, Tom Lee wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> In the context of detection, nonlinearity is the desired 
> attribute, hence the somewhat tortured grammar. But there was a 
> method to my madness.
> 
> As to semiconductors, it isn't accurate to say that the forward 
> voltage is independent of current. It most certainly depends on 
> current, just as a vacuum tube's forward drop does. It's simply 
> that an exponential is so much more dramatic that we are fooled 
> into thinking that solid-state devices have a fixed forward 
> voltage. In fact, it will increase about 100mV for every factor 
> of 10 in current (for ordinary diodes; ideally, it should be 60mV 
> per decade); that's a 16% increase in forward voltage, and that's 
> without including the additional parasitic resistance that all 
> real devices possesses. Compared with a vacuum tube, it may seem 
> "constant" but one must be careful about quantitative aspects in 
> certain contexts.
> 
> --Cheers,
> Tom
> 

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL