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Diode Triode

In electronics, a vacuum tube or thermionic valve, is a device generally used to amplify, switch or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space.

For most purposes, the vacuum tube has been replaced by the much smaller, less power-hungry, and less expensive transistor, either as a discrete device or in an integrated circuit. However, tubes are still used in specialized applications, such as in high-end audio systems and high power RF transmitters. Cathode ray tubes are still used as a display device in television sets and computer monitors (although they face serious competition from LCD and plasma displays), and magnetrons are the source of microwaves in microwave ovens.