Jonathan Bloomer
"Vacuum tubes...have almost disappeared from our day-to-day life, save for some purist sound rigs and high-power radio base stations"
What?! Every (decent) guitar amplifier on the planet using vacuum tubes, that makes for a LOT. These aren't amps used by purists, they are everything from 1 watt amps used by kids to 100 watt amps. Even some Overdrive and Distortion pedals these days include 12AX7 tubes. Check every stage of every gig and every bedroom guitar player's rig.
Slowburn
But will the nanoscale vacuum channel transistors be more or less susceptible to an EMP event?
Joris van den Heuvel
Extending upon Jonathan's remark: most households use a very large, very powerful vacuum tube: every microwave oven uses a magnetron tube.
Stewart Mitchell
I remember this idea. it must be 10 years since I read about it.
Kirill Belousov
Welcome back in a new body dear Vacuum tubes!
michael_dowling
EMP events will likely be harmless to tubes.That is why early Russian jet fighters had an advantage over western designs: they used vacuum tubes while the west had "advanced" to transistorized circuits,which are definitely vulnerable to EMP.
M. Report
Vacuum nanoelectronics
'can be manufactured cheaply using standard silicon semiconductor processing'..... because they do not have the complicated structure/composition of semiconductors ?
Yes, it is inherently EMP-proof, which alone is reason enough to incorporate it in critical no-fail functions; Anyone not worried about EMP weapons should Google 'Carrington Event' and read about _naturally_generated_ EMP.
Obsolete equipment may get a new lease on life producing this circuitry at prices even 3rd world countries can afford, and while it cannot match the speed/complexity of semiconductor circuitry, it can be used to build general-purpose microcomputers adequate to their needs.
Myron J. Poltroonian
I worked at Fender Musical Instruments in Fullerton, Ca. back in the late '60's. I also played guitar for a living for twenty years, almost all of it with my trusty Fender Super Reverb and/or my Fender Bandmaster. (The former with a single Gauss 15" Guitar [not Bass] speaker, and the later with an Alembic B-12 w/two Gauss 12" Guitar speakers.) Anyway, it'll be nice to find an alternative source for 5881/6L6GC's, 7025's, 12AX7's, 6679/12AT7's & etc., besides Sovtek. (My rectifier tube socket was rewired w/solid state components by Nic Grabien at Stars Guitars when we both worked there in the late '70's.) Anyway, I was on stage a few weeks ago and every one, player and sound tech alike, were just in love with the sound of my genuine tube powered amps. Sometimes, you just can't improve on perfection. No matter how "Technical" you get.
Slowburn
re; michael_dowling
The Russians built transistors as soon as they had reliable ones.
Captain Obvious
There's a good article in recent Electronic Design magazine, on why tubes sound different. Answer: low damping and transformer filtering; you're hearing the ringing and resonances of the speaker, not the "warmth" of the tubes. Transistors are low impedance voltage sources.