5963

5963 has no equivalent designation confirmed by the archive. Completed sales put the typical price at $7.50 per tube.

The 5963 is a medium-mu twin triode in 9-pin miniature construction, housed in a glass bulb with a small-button Noval 9-pin base (basing diagram JEDEC 9A). It is designed for frequency-divider circuits in electronic computers and other on-off control applications requiring long periods of operation under cutoff conditions.

Construction and Mounting

The tube can be operated in any mounting position, but for utmost service it should be vertical with base up or down, or horizontal with base pins 5 and 9 in a vertical plane.

Ratings

The heater can be wired for series operation at 12.6 volts ±10% and 0.15 ampere, or for parallel operation at 6.3 volts ±10% and 0.3 ampere. Heater operation may be AC or DC. Maximum ratings include a plate voltage of 250 volts, negative grid bias of 100 volts, positive grid bias of 0 volts, peak negative grid voltage of 200 volts, plate dissipation of 2.5 watts, grid input of 0.5 watt, DC cathode current of 20 milliamperes, and peak cathode current of 100 milliamperes. Peak heater-cathode voltage is 90 volts with the heater either negative or positive with respect to the cathode. Maximum bulb temperature at the hottest point on the bulb surface is 120 °C. Maximum grid-circuit resistance is 0.5 megohm for fixed-bias operation and 1.0 megohm for cathode-bias operation.

Characteristics

In a Class A amplifier test (each unit) at plate voltage 67.5 volts and grid voltage 0 volts, the amplification factor is 21, plate resistance is 6600 ohms, transconductance is 3200 micromhos, and plate current is 8.5 milliamperes. The Tung-Sol Electric Inc. datasheet, dated November 1, 1959, gives the grid-to-plate capacitance of each unit as 1.5 picofarads, the grid-to-cathode-and-heater capacitance of each unit as 1.9 picofarads, the plate-to-cathode-and-heater capacitance of unit 1 as 0.5 picofarad and of unit 2 as 0.35 picofarad, and the maximum grid-of-unit-1-to-grid-of-unit-2 capacitance as 0.01 picofarad.

Special Tests

In the cutoff condition test (heater 12.6 volts, plate supply 150 volts, plate circuit resistance 20000 ohms, grid supply −15 volts, grid circuit resistance 47000 ohms), plate current must not exceed 50 microamperes, and the difference in plate current between units must not exceed 50 microamperes. In the zero-bias condition test (same as cutoff but grid supply 0 volts), plate current is between 4.6 and 5.4 milliamperes, and the difference in plate current between units must not exceed 0.8 milliampere.

Per-tube prices from completed sales, 2026-08-20 to 2026-09-16. Matched pairs and quads are divided out. See the price index for how these move over time.

Original manufacturer datasheets for 5963, hosted by Frank Philipse's Electron Tube Data sheets.

Documents held here and used to write this page.

• FREQUENCY DIVIDER IN COMPUTER SERVICE AND 'ON-OFF' CONTROL SERVICE