[Milsurplus] SRR-11/12/13 and subminis

[Peter Gottlieb]

It is a fair question.  Everything has failure modes, semiconductors are no 
exception.  The operating parameters you mentioned can yield very long 
lifetimes, and indeed you cite several applications where extremely long life 
has been shown.  On the solid state side, there are impurities, current 
concentrations, dendrites, electron migration and other failure modes so long 
life is not guaranteed.  In certain environments (e.g., high radiation, EMP) 
tubes may even be easier to engineer for long life.

The answers indicate that yes, it is possible to engineer and apply tubes in 
such a way to have lifetimes even approaching our own.

Peter



antqradio at juno.com wrote:
> Peter
> I think it is not really a fair question.  It's comparing apples to
> oranges.
>