History of Electronics

Electronics is the study of electricity (the flow of electrons) and how to use that to build things like computers. It uses circuits that are made with parts called components and connecting wires to do useful things. The science behind Electronics comes from the study of physics and gets applied in real-life ways through the field of electrical engineering.

Electronics comprises the physics, engineering, technology and applications that deal with the emission, flow and control of electrons in vacuum and matter. It uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification and rectification, which distinguishes it from classical electrical engineering which uses passive effects such as resistance, capacitance and inductance to control current flow.

Electronics has had a major effect on the development of modern society. The identification of the electron in 1897, along with the subsequent invention of the vacuum tube which could amplify and rectify small electrical signals, inaugurated the field of electronics and the electron age.

Electronics’ actual history began with the invention of vacuum diode by J.A. Fleming, in 1897; and, after that, a vacuum triode was implemented by Lee De Forest to amplify electrical signals. This led to the introduction of tetrode and pentode tubes that dominated the world until World War II.

And the trend further carried forward with the JFETS and MOSFETs that were developed from 1951 to 1958 by improving the device designing process and by making more reliable and powerful transistors.

Digital integrated circuits were yet another robust IC development that changed the overall architecture of computers. These ICs were developed with Transistor-transistor logic (TTL), integrated injection logic (I2L), and emitter-coupled logic (ECL) technologies. Later these digital ICs employed PMOS, NMOS, and CMOS fabrication design technologies.

All these radical changes in all these components led to the introduction of microprocessors in 1969 by Intel. Soon after, the analog integrated circuits were developed that introduced an operational amplifier for analog signal processing. These analog circuits include analog multipliers, ADC and DAC converters, and analog filters.

This is all about the fundamental understanding of electronics history. This history of electronics technology costs a greater investment of time, efforts, and talent from the real heroes, some of them are described below.

• 2006 – The First WII and PS3 Gaming Console were Launched.

• 2007 – First Apple iPhone and iPod were Launched.

• 2008 – First Android OS for Smartphones was Launched.

• 2008 – The Large Hadron Collider.

• 2010 – The First Apple iPad and Xbox 360 Gaming Console were Launched.

• 2011 – Solar Panel Revolution as Alternate and Renewable Source of Energy.

• 2011 – Curiosity, the space vehicle launched by NASA landed on Mars.

• 2014 – Microscale 3-D Printing Available.

• 2018 – Parker Solar Probe Launched by Nasa.

• 2019 – India Launched Chandrayan-2 to the Moon.

• 1946 – 2021 (Still Going On) – Ray Prasad contribution to SMT.

The first electronic device was introduced by an American scientist, Sir Joseph Henry, in the year 1835. He invented a remote switch that was controlled by electricity.

However, the credit for this invention was given to an English inventor Edward Davy in his electric telegraph c. 1835.

Electronic devices tend to perform the following main functions:

• Rectification

The process of converting an alternating current (A.C.) to a direct current (D.C.) is known as rectification. Electronic devices can convert A.C. power into D.C. power which has various uses like charging storage batteries, electroplating, etc., with great ease as well as efficiency.

• Amplification

A weak signal can be strengthened through the process of amplification and this process can be very easily achieved by electronic devices. A good example would be the usage of an amplifier in a radio set so that it is heard more loudly.

• Generation

Electronic devices are also capable of converting A.C. power into D.C. power of any given frequency. And when these devices perform this particular function, they are commonly referred to as oscillators.

Reference:

https://www.elprocus.com/know-about-brief-history-of-electronics-and-their-generations/#:~:text=Electronics'%20actual%20history%20began%20with,world%20until%20World%20War%20II.

http://www.electronicsandyou.com/blog/history-of-electronics.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tLuDJeh8yU

https://www.vedantu.com/physics/electronics-in-daily-life