Vacuum Transistor

Introducing the Vacuum Transistor: A Device Made of Nothing

This curious mash-up of vaccum tube and MOSFET could one day replace traditional silicon

By Jin-Woo Han & Meyya Meyyappan

Vaccum Triode Tube

In September 1976, in the midst of the Cold War, Victor Ivanovich Belenko, a disgruntled Soviet pilot, veered off course from a training flight over Siberia in his MiG-25 Foxbat, flew low and fast across the Sea of Japan, and landed the plane at a civilian airport in Hokkaido with just 30 seconds of fuel remaining. His dramatic defection was a boon for U.S. military analysts, who for the first time had an opportunity to examine up close this high-speed Soviet fighter, which they had thought to be one of the world’s most capable aircraft. What they discovered astonished them.

Read complete article at IEEE Spectrum