Dec. 26, 1961 L. w.

ERATH
3,015,070
WIDEBAND TUBE-TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIER
Filed June 3, 1958

M/PUT

/0 9/5: OUTPUT

f: OUTPUT

mW
INVENTOR

LOU/6' WEA’ATH _

BY
734M, 490mg, Maia/?aw
ATTORNEYS
 fat"
‘rates atettt ride 3,0150%
Patented Dec. 26, 196i
3 2
nal voltage is developed across the grid resistor 1 of a
3,015,070 vacuum tube 2. A conventional vacuum tube could be
WHDEBAND TUBE-TRANSETQR AMPLIFIER
Louis W. Erath, Houston, Tern, assignor, by mesne as employed if a large plate resistor were emp‘oyed and a
signznents, to Dresser industries, inc, Dallas, Ten, a fairly high plate voltage of the order of 30-40 volts used
corporation of Delaware in order that extremely low grid current could be ob
Filed June 3, 1953, Ser. No. 739,563 tained. However, in the present circuit the gain of the
3 Ciaims. (Cl. 330-3) input or vacuum tube stage can be unity or less, so that
This invention relates to ampli?cation of voltages, and low transconductance is not important and tubes especial
ly designed for low grid current can be ernp'oyed. Such
more particularly to wideband ampli?ers for amplifying a tube is the type designated by Raytheon as the CK
voltages of frequencies from very low to high values of the
order of megacycles. 5886. This tube has extremely low ?lament current,
high emission stability, and low microphonics. The
In the past, wideband ampli?cation has been accom screen grid of the tube is connected to the plate, so that
plished by the use of R.-.C. coupled circuits including the tube is operated as a triode, and, when so operated,
vacuum tubes of very high transconductance. It has been 15 the tube has an unusually high ratio of transconductance
desired to maintain the phase shift or time delay through to control grid current. The transconductance is of the
the ampli?er as small as possible, but yet to obtain as high
gain as possible. In order to obtain high gain, the tubes
order of 175, while the control gird current is nominally
of the order of 25x10"13 amperes. The capacity be
selected for such work have interelectrode spacings which tween control grid and all other electrodes is of the order
are very small, in order that the transconductance may of 2.2 micromicrofarads.
e very high. Further, the tubes have been operated with The apparatus of FIG. 1 employs a bias battery 3 con
very high plate currents of the order of 5 to 30 milliam nected between the control grid and grid resistor of the
pores, and with relatively low plate resistors of the order electrometer tube to supply the appropriate negative grid
of 1,000 to 5,000 ohms. These combined factors result bias. The cathode of the tube is a ?lament heated by a.
in re‘atively high grid current, since the grid current of an small ?lament battery 4.
amplifying tube is determined by the total space current The cathode is connected to ground by a small resistor
of the tube.
5, while the anode is connected to the positive side of a
The design considerations referred to above have re platevoltage source 6 by a small p'ate resistor 7. The
sulted in a widespread impression among ampli?er de negative side of the plate voltage supply is connected to
signers that low grid current (high input impedance) is 30 ground.
inherently associated with low frequency response and The anode of the e‘ectrorneter tube is conductiveiy
that wideband ampli?cation cannot be obtained with connected to the base of a PNP junction transistor 8, and
negligible grid current.
the emitter of ‘the transistor is connected to the positive
On the other hand, designers desiring to obtain low side of the plate supply 6. Bias for the collector of the
grid current and high input impedance customarily provide 35
transistor is obtained from a battery source 9 whose posi
ampli?er tubes with very high plate or cathode resistors, tive terminal is grounded and whose negative terminal is
in order to reduce the total space current and hence the connected to the collector through resistor 10. The out
grid current.
put of the ampli?er is developed across resistor 10.
An inherent disadvantage in the use of high transcon~ In order to stabilize the ampli?er and to supply the
ductance vacuum tubes for Wideband amp‘i?cation is that 40 other well known bene?ts of degenerative feedback, the
small interelectrode spacing results in high input capacity. junction between the transistor collector and resistor 10
The Miller effect further increases this capacity, with the is connected to the cathode of the electrometer tube
result that phase change or delay becomes relatively high through feedback resistor 11, thus furnishing series nega
and disadvantageous. tive feedback.
The present invention results from the realization that 45 Before describing the operation of the amplifier of FIG.
small grid current and wideband ampli?cation are not 1, preferred values of the resistors will be given:
necessarily inconsistent, but rather that a tube designed
for extremely low grid current can be employed in a wide Ohms
band ampli?er by using the tube as a voltage to current R5 _____________________________________ __ 1,000
transducer, and by employing its output to drive a tran 50 R7 _____________________________________ __ 1,000
sistor, which is inherently a current~operated device. R10 ____________________________________ __ 3,300
With a circuit of this kind, wideband ampli?cation can R11 ____________________________________ -_ 10,000
be obtained with negligible phase change or delay. Bias battery 3 may be nominally of 3.5 volts, While
The invention includes a Wideband ampli?er, employing plate battery 6 will be 131/2 volts, and bias battery 9 may
the combination of a high input impedance vacuum tube 55 be 9 volts, in potential.
and a directly-coup‘ed transistor. in order to stabilize the With the electrometer tube preferably employed, it is
circuit and to further increase the input impedance, series possible to use a plate resistor of the order of 1000 ohms,
negative feedback is also employed. so that the bandwidth can be very'high. As a matter of
The invention will now be more fully described in con fact, it has been found that the ampli?er of FIG. 1, em
junction with preferred embodiments thereof shown in so ploying the values of components listed above, has a
the accompanying drawing. bandwidth of the order of 2 megacycles, with a grid cur
In the drawing: rent of l micrornicroampere. In contrast, an earlier more
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of conventional ampli?er designed for low grid current had
the invention;
65 a bandwidth of 0.1 megacycle and a grid current of 1,000
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a modi?cation of the micromicroamperes. If a ?gure of merit determined by
apparatus of FIG. 1; the ratio between the bandwidth and the grid current is
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a further modi?cation calculated, it will be seen that the ampli?er of FIG. 1
ofthe apparatus of FIG. 1; and, is about 20,000 times better than that of the previous
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of
70 design.
the invention designed to drive a meter. In operation of the apparatus of FIG. 1, the input im
Referring ?rst to the apparatus of FIG. 1, the input sig pedance may be as high as desired, and even in?nity. The
 3,015,070
electrometer tube operates as a voltage to current trans The invention has been described in conjunction with
ducer, thus furnishing to the transistor, current for its op preferred embodiments thereof, as shown in the above re
eration. Actually, the tube is so operated that a loss in ferred to drawing. It will be understood that many minor
gain is su?ered across the tube, but the transistor circuit modi?cations could be made in the apparatus without de
compensates for this loss and provides a total gain in the parture from the scope of the invention. In particular,
ampli?er. other transistor stages could be added between the PNP
The plate voltage supply is so small that internal ioni transistor shown and the output of the ampli?er circuit,
zation does not occur in the tube characteristics and the and the degenerative feedback resistor could be con
nected to the output circuit of the entire ampli?er and not
parameters of its circuit are such that the input impedance
is extremely high. The ampli?er has frequency response 10 to the col'ector of the PNP transistor shown. Consequent
characteristics extending into the megacycle range, so ly, the invention is not to be considered limited to the
that it is truly a wideband ampli?er. embodiments disclosed, but rather only by the scope of
The gain of the ampli?er of FIG. 1 is approximately the appended claims.
the ratio of the feedback resistor R11 to the cathode re Iclaim:
sistor R5. With the illustrative values given, the gain 15 1. A single ended Wideband and D.-C. ampli?er includ
of the ampli?er is of the order of 10. ing a vacuum tube having at least a cathode, a control
It will be understood that the illustrative values given grid, and an anode, an input circuit connected between
for the resistors and voltage sources of the apparatus of the negative terminal of a ?rst D.-C. voltage source and
FIG. 1 are not limiting of the invention, but merely de control grid of said tube for supplying a signal voltage
scribe one preferred design of the apparatus. 20 thereto, a plate resistor connected between a positive
In certain cases it might not be desirable to use the terminal of said ?rst source and said anode, said cathode
bias battery of FIG. 1. The apparatus of FIG. 2 cm being connected through a degenerative resistance, a col
ploys a voltage divider including resistor 12 and cathode lector bias resistor, and a second D.-C. source to a nega~
resistor 5 connected across the plate battery s, to furnish tive terminal of said first D.-C. source, said tube and the
positive bias for the cathode of the electrometer tube. The parameters of its circuits being so chosen that the grid
apparatus is otherwise identical with that of FIG. 1 and current in the tube is of the order of 101'12 amperes, a PNP
will not be further described. junction transistor having its base directly connected to
In the apparatus of FIG. 3, the signal voltage is ca said anode and its emitter connected to said positive termi
pacity-coupled to the ampli?er through capacitor 13 con nal of said ?rst D.-C. source, said collector resistor con
nected to the control grid of the electrometer tube 2. nected between the collector of said transistor and a nega
Bias voltage is obtained by connecting the grid resistor 1 tive terminal of said second D.-C. source, the positive
to the movable contact of a potentiometer 14, which is terminal or said second D.-C. source being directly con
connected between the negative side of transistor bias nected to the negative terminal of said ?rst D.-C. source.
battery 9 and ground. 2. The apparatus of claim 1 including a cathode re
The apparatus of FIG. 3 is otherwise identical with that sistor connected between said cathode and said ?rst-men
of FIG. 1 and will not be further described. tioned negative terminal of said ?rst D.-C. source, the
The ampli?er of the invention can be used as a unity gain of the ampli?er being selectably by selection of the
gain circuit for driving a meter, as well as for ampli? relative magnitudes of said cathode resistor and said de
cation purposes. In FIG. 4, the signal to be measured generative resistor.
isv supplied across grid resistor 15 of electrometer tube 3. The apparatusof claim 1 including means for bias—
16. The usual plate resistor 17 is connected between ing the grid of said vacuum tube negative with respect to
the anode of the electrometer. tube and the positive side its cathode.
of the plate voltage supply 18, while the usual cathode
resistor 19 is connected between the ?lament of the References Cited in the ?le of this patent
electrometer tube and ground. As in the ampli?er em 45 UNITED STATES PATENTS
bodiments of FIGS. 1 through 3, the PNP transistor 2% has
2,694,181 Lax _________________ __ Nov. 9, 1954
its base connected to the anode of tube 16 and its emitter
connected to the positive side of plate supply 113. The 2,879,410’ Loeb _________________ _._ Mar. 4, 1959
collector of the transistor, however, is connected directly 50
to the filament or cathode of the electrometer tube. Bias FOREIGN PATENTS
voltage for the collector is furnished by battery 21 whose 150,232 Australia ____________ __ Feb. 23, 1953
positive side is connected to the negative side of plate
supply 18 and whose negative side is grounded. The OTHER REFERENCES
meter 22 is connected in a series circuit between the junc Starke: “The Transistor, DC. Ampli?er,” Radio and Tele
tion of the two batteries and the col‘ector of the transistor.
A resistor 23 forms part of this series circuit.
vision News, Dec. 1953, pages 82, 83, 148-151.
The apparatus of FIG. 4 functions in substantially the
Langford-Smith: “Radiotron Designer’s handbook,”
same manner as that of H6. 1. However, the circuit
fourth edition, 1952, pages 311, 312, 315 and 3017.
is designed for unity gain and is employed to isolate the 60
meter from the voltage to be measured,