In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube (in North America), or thermionic valve

(elsewhere, especially in Britain) is a device used to amplify, switch, otherwise modify,

or create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure
space. Some special function vacuum tubes are filled with low-pressure gas: these are
so-called soft tubes as distinct from the hard vacuum type which have the internal gas
pressure reduced as far as possible. Almost all tubes depend on the thermionic
emission of electrons.
Vacuum tubes were critical to the development of electronic technology, which drove the
expansion and commercialization of radio broadcasting, television, radar, sound
reproduction, large telephone networks, analog and digital computers, and industrial
process control. Some of these applications pre-dated electronics, but it was the
vacuum tube that made them widespread and practical.
For most purposes, the vacuum tube has been replaced by solid-state devices such as
transistors and solid-state diodes. Solid-state devices last much longer, are smaller,
more efficient, more reliable, and cheaper than equivalent vacuum tube devices.
However, tubes are still used in specialized applications: for engineering reasons, as in
high-power radio frequency transmitters; or for their aesthetic appeal and distinct sound
signature, as in audio amplification. Cathode ray tubes until very recently were the
primary display devices in television sets, video monitors, and oscilloscopes, although
they are now being replaced by LCDs and other flat-panel displays. A specialized form
of the electron tube, the magnetron, is the source of microwave energy in microwave
ovens and some radar systems. The klystron, a powerful but narrow-band radio-
frequency amplifier, is commonly deployed by broadcasters as a high-power UHF
television transmitter.

Structure of a vacuum tube diode

 vacuum tube triode

Vacuum tubes are less susceptible than

corresponding solid-state components to the
electromagnetic pulse effect of nuclear
explosions. This property kept them in use for certain military applications long after
transistors had replaced them elsewhere. Vacuum tubes are still used for very high-
powered applications such as industrial radio-frequency heating, generating large
amounts of RF energy for particle accelerators, and power amplification for
broadcasting. In microwave ovens, cost-engineered magnetrons efficiently generate
microwave power on the order of hundreds of watts.
Many audiophiles, professional audio engineers, and musicians prefer the tube sound of
audio equipment based on vacuum tubes over electronics based on transistors. There
are companies which still make specialized audio hardware featuring tube technology. A
common usage is in the high-end microphone preamplifiers preferred by professional
music recording studios, and in electric guitar amplification. The sound produced by a
tube based amplifier with the tubes overloaded (overdriven) has defined the texture of
some genres of music such as classic rock and blues. Guitarists often prefer tube
amplifiers for the warmth of their tone and the natural compression effect they can apply
to an input signal.
Cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) are a highly-evolved type of vacuum tube, described
elsewhere.
In 2002, computer motherboard maker AOpen brought back the vacuum tube for
modern computer use by releasing the AX4GE Tube-G motherboard. This motherboard
uses a Sovtek 6922 vacuum tube (a version of the 6DJ8) as part of AOpen’s
TubeSound Technology. AOpen claims that the vacuum tube brings superior sound.

INSIDE A TUBE
All modern vacuum tubes are based on the concept of the Audion--a heated "cathode"
boils off electrons into a vacuum; they pass through a grid (or many grids), which control
the electron current; the electrons then strike the anode (plate) and are absorbed. By
designing the cathode, grid(s) and plate properly, the tube will make a small AC signal
voltage into a larger AC voltage, thus amplifying it. (By comparison, today's transistor
makes use of electric fields in a crystal which has been specially processed--a much
less obvious kind of amplifier, though much more important in today's world.)