Reply To: Energy Output – MW & GW

[JimmyT]

He is talking about vacuum tube technology. Which is essentially what his device is. That technology was almost totally displaced by solid state devices. Transistors and diodes and such.

The plasmas in vacuum tubes are not in equilibrium. They do not have a Maxwellian energy distribution.

That having been said, I really don’t think he (Dr Bussard) was ever going to reach the density/confinement times/temperatures needed to achieve ignition using his methodologies.

There were some advantages to the old vacuum tube technologies. You could achieve a higher level of amplification in a single stage with them then with solid state devices. They were quirky beasts though. Always displaying wierd harmonics, (Feedback). They kept trying to overcome these problems by adding extra grids. The first tube amplifiers were triodes, containing just an electron emitter, a control grid and a collector. The final ones were pentodes. Containing three grids between the emitter and the collector. They were energy hogs too. Last I knew radio stations still used tube technology for their final amplification stage while broadcasting because they were capable of higher wattage.

Any amplification device is essentially a switch. If the diamond/laser switches ever get fully developed then I’m sure they will be used as amplifiers.