Theoretical Limitation to Transconductance in Certain Types of Vacuum Tubes

The thermal-velocity distribution of thermionically emitted electrons limits the low-frequency transconductance which can be attained in tubes in whose operation space charge is not important. A relation is developed by means of which this dependence may be evaluated for tubes employing electric and magnetic control. This relation is applied to deflection tubes with electric and magnetic control and to stopping-potential tubes. Magnetic control is shown to be inferior to electric control from the point of view of bandwidth and gain.