Control grid Control grid The control grid is an electrode used in amplifying thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) such as the triode, tetrode and pentode, used to control the flow of electrons from the cathode to the anode (plate) electrode. The control grid usually consists of a cylindrical screen or helix of fine wire surrounding the cathode, and is surrounded in turn by the anode. The control grid was invented by Lee De Forest, who in 1906 added a grid to the Fleming valve (thermionic diode) to create the first amplifying vacuum tube, the Audion (triode). In a valve, the hot cathode emits
Don Carpenter (electrical engineer) Don Carpenter (electrical engineer) Donald L. Carpenter is a Space Scientist, Professor (Research) Emeritus in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University. He co-discovered the sharp dropoff in the plasmasphere surrounding Earth. Known as co-discoverer of the “knee,” or sharp dropoff (later called the plasmapause) in the radial profile of the dense plasma cloud (later called the plasmasphere) that surrounds the Earth to typical equatorial distances of several Earth radii. Carpenter was awarded the 2002 John Howard Dellinger Medal by the International Union of Radio Science for "his discovery of the plasmapause, for pioneering studies of the plasmasphere structure and