Krytron
Sign in to savethumb|upright|KN2 "Krytron" switch tube, made by EG&G (about 25 mm tall) The krytron is a cold-cathode gas-filled tube intended for use as a very high-speed switch, somewhat similar to the thyratron. It consists of a sealed glass tube with four electrodes. A small triggering pulse on the grid electrode switches the tube on, allowing a large current to flow between the cathode and anode electrodes. The vacuum version is called a vacuum krytron, or sprytron. The krytron was one of the earliest developments of the EG&G Corporation.
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Description
- Operation
- Sprytron
- Performance
- Applications
- Export restrictions in the United States
- In popular culture
- Further developments
- Notes
- References
- External links
thumb|upright|KN2 "Krytron" switch tube, made by EG&G (about 25 mm tall) The krytron is a cold-cathode gas-filled tube intended for use as a very high-speed switch, somewhat similar to the thyratron. It consists of a sealed glass tube with four electrodes. A small triggering pulse on the grid electrode switches the tube on, allowing a large current to flow between the cathode and anode electrodes. The vacuum version is called a vacuum krytron, or sprytron. The krytron was one of the earliest developments of the EG&G Corporation.
==Description== Unlike most other gas switching tubes, the krytron conducts by means of an arc discharge, to handle very high voltages and currents (reaching several kilovolts and several kiloamperes), rather than the low-current glow discharge used in other thyratrons. The krytron is a development of the triggered spark gaps and thyratrons originally developed for radar transmitters during World War II.