08-03-2024, 11:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-03-2024, 11:22 AM by Mike Watterson.)
Direct Radiation and EMP are completely separate issues. Radioactive fallout is also a different issue.
In theory you can have an EMP with no radiation. Can be done in a lab and also lightning (which can be upwards into space) generates an EMP. It's just that atomic / nuclear weapons emitted an unexpectedly strong EMP. The Russians often used Germanium power transistors as HT inverters and sometimes for audio out on Rod tube systems. They were behind on Silicon and for RF the rod tubes were far better than their RF Germanium parts.
So the MiGs using Rod tubes could have been a mix of inertia and lack of decent semiconductors rather than genuine EMP resistance because of Germanium transistor power supplies! Besides a decent EMP might take out the filament (though I'm only guessing).
The satellites etc, starting with Sputnik, did use Rod tubes for a long while and that was because of radiation (not EMP) that was an issue for germanium or silicon for a long while. Curiously Cosmic Radiation, especially beyond Van Allen Belts, is very damaging (also to people) and is worse when the Solar wind is slack (a solar flare is damaging). A huge issue for travel to Mars. You can mitigate with a dual layer hull with water inside as shielding. Silicon on sapphire of itself does nothing for EMP or radiation hardening. A radiation proof device (mostly anyway) might still be just as vulnerable to EMP. Radiation will change the 1 and 0s in RAM, a soft error that can be recovered. EMP generates high induced currents that actually fail a device or a bond wire like blowing a fuse.
In theory you can have an EMP with no radiation. Can be done in a lab and also lightning (which can be upwards into space) generates an EMP. It's just that atomic / nuclear weapons emitted an unexpectedly strong EMP. The Russians often used Germanium power transistors as HT inverters and sometimes for audio out on Rod tube systems. They were behind on Silicon and for RF the rod tubes were far better than their RF Germanium parts.
So the MiGs using Rod tubes could have been a mix of inertia and lack of decent semiconductors rather than genuine EMP resistance because of Germanium transistor power supplies! Besides a decent EMP might take out the filament (though I'm only guessing).
The satellites etc, starting with Sputnik, did use Rod tubes for a long while and that was because of radiation (not EMP) that was an issue for germanium or silicon for a long while. Curiously Cosmic Radiation, especially beyond Van Allen Belts, is very damaging (also to people) and is worse when the Solar wind is slack (a solar flare is damaging). A huge issue for travel to Mars. You can mitigate with a dual layer hull with water inside as shielding. Silicon on sapphire of itself does nothing for EMP or radiation hardening. A radiation proof device (mostly anyway) might still be just as vulnerable to EMP. Radiation will change the 1 and 0s in RAM, a soft error that can be recovered. EMP generates high induced currents that actually fail a device or a bond wire like blowing a fuse.
