
Prologue to
Electronics
When most of us hear the word electronics, we think of televisions, laptop computers,
cell phones, or iPods. Actually, these items are electronic systems composed of sub-
systems or electronic circuits, which include amplifiers, signal sources, power sup-
plies, and digital logic circuits.
Electronics is defined as the science of the motion of charges in a gas, vacuum,
or semiconductor. (Note that the charge motion in a metal is excluded from this
definition.) This definition was used early in the 20th century to separate the field of
electrical engineering, which dealt with motors, generators, and wire communica-
tions, from the new field of electronic engineering, which at that time dealt with
vacuum tubes. Today, electronics generally involves transistors and transistor
circuits. Microelectronics refers to integrated circuit (IC) technology, which can
produce a circuit with multimillions of components on a single piece of semicon-
ductor material.
A typical electrical engineer will perform many diverse functions, and is likely
to use, design, or build systems incorporating some form of electronics. Conse-
quently, the division between electrical and electronic engineering is no longer as
clear as originally defined.
BRIEF HISTORY
The development of the transistor and the integrated circuit has led to remarkable
electronic capabilities. The IC permeates almost every facet of our daily lives, from
instant communications by cellular phone to the automobile. One dramatic example
of IC technology is the small laptop computer, which today has more capability than
the equipment that just a few years ago would have filled an entire room. The cell
phone has shown dramatic changes. It not only provides for instant messaging, but
also includes a camera so that pictures can be instantly sent to virtually every point
on earth.
A fundamental breakthrough in electronics came in December 1947, when the
first transistor was demonstrated at Bell Telephone Laboratories by William
Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain. From then until approximately 1959,
the transistor was available only as a discrete device, so the fabrication of circuits
required that the transistor terminals be soldered directly to the terminals of other
components.
In September 1958, Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments demonstrated the first
integrated circuit fabricated in germanium. At about the same time, Robert Noyce of
Fairchild Semiconductor introduced the integrated circuit in silicon. The develop-
ment of the IC continued at a rapid rate through the 1960s, using primarily bipolar
transistor technology. Since then, the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transis-
tor (MOSFET) and MOS integrated circuit technology have emerged as a dominant
force, especially in digital integrated circuits.
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