Brief History of Electronics and Its Development

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 the World War II.
Subsequently, the transistor era began with the junction transistor invention in 1948. Even
though, this particular invention got a Nobel Prize, yet it was later replaced with a bulky
vacuum tube that would consume high power for its operation. The use of germanium and
silicon semiconductor materials made theses transistor gain the popularity and wide-
acceptance usage in different electronic circuits.
Integrated circuits (ICs)
The subsequent years witnessed the invention of the integrated circuits (ICs) that drastically
changed the electronic circuits’ nature as the entire electronic circuit got integrated on a single
chip, which resulted in low: cost, size and weight electronic devices. The years 1958 to 1975
marked the introduction of IC with enlarged capabilities of over several thousand components
on a single chip such as small-scale integration, medium-large scale and very-large scale
integration ICs.
And the trend further carried forward with the JFETS and MOSFETs that were developed
during 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 microprocessor in
1969 by Intel. Soon after, the analog integrated circuits were developed that introduced an
operational amplifier for an analog signal processing. These analog circuits include analog
multipliers, ADC and DAC converters and analog filters.
This is all about the fundamental understanding of the electronics history. This history of
electronics technology costs greater investment of time, efforts and talent from the real
heroes, some of them are described below.
Inventors in history of electronics
Luigi Galvani (1737-1798)
Luigi Galvani was a professor in the University of Bologna. He studied the effects of electricity
on animals, especially on frogs. With the help of experiments, he showed the presence of
electricity in frogs in the year 1791.
Charles Coulomb (1737-1806)
Charles coulomb was a great scientist of the 18th century. He experimented with the
mechanical resistance and developed coulomb’s law of electro-static charges in the year 1799.
Allesandro Volta (1745-1827)
Allesandro Volta was an Italian scientist. He invented battery in the year 1799. He was the first
to develop a battery (Voltaic cell) that could produce electricity as a result of chemical reaction.
Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1852)
Hans Christian Oersted showed that whenever a current flow through a conductor, a magnetic
field is associated with it. He initiated the study of electromagnetism and discovered
Aluminum in the year 1820.
George Simon Ohm (1789-1854)
George Simon Ohm was a German physicist. He experimented with the electrical circuits and
made his own part including the wire. He found that some conductors worked when compared
to others. He discovered Ohms law in the year 1827, which is a relation between current,
voltage& resistance. The unit for resistance is named after him.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday was a British scientist and great pioneer experimenter in electricity and
magnetism. After the discovery by Oersted, he demonstrated electromagnetic induction in the
year 1831. This is the basic principle of the working of generators.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
James Clerk Maxwell was a British physicist, and he wrote treatise on magnetism and
electricity in the year 1873. He developed the electromagnetic field equations in the year 1864.
The equations in it were explained and predicted by hertz’s work and faradays’ work. James
Clerk Maxwell formulated an important theory – that is, electromagnetic theory of light.
Henrich Rudolph Hertz (1857-1894)
Henrich Rudolph Hertz was a German physicist born in 1857 in Hamburg. He demonstrated the
electromagnetic radiation predicted by Maxwell. By using experimental procedures, he proved
the theory by engineering instruments to transmit and receive radio pulses. He was the first
person to demonstrate the photo-electric effect. The unit of frequency was named Hertz in his
honorarium.
Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836)
Andre Marie Ampere was a French mathematician and physicist. He studied the effects of
electric current and invented solenoid. The SI unit of electric current (the Ampere) was named
after him.
Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
Karl Friedrich Gauss was a physical scientist and a greatest German mathematician. He
contributed to many fields like algebra, analysis, statistics, electrostatics and astronomy. The
CGS unit of magnetic field density was named after him.
Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891)
Wilhelm Eduard Weber was a German physicist. He investigated terrestrial magnetism with his
friend Carl fried rich. He devised an electromagnetic telegraph in the year 1833, and also
established a system of absolute electrical units, and the MKS unit of flux was named after
Weber.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1932)
Thomas Alva Edison was a businessman and an American inventor. He developed many
devices like, practical electric bulb, motion picture camera, photograph and other such things.
While inventing the electric lamp, he observed the Edison effect.
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
Nikola Tesla invented the Tesla coil; the Tesla induction motor; alternating current (AC);
electrical supply system that includes a transformer; 3-phase electricity and motor. In 1891,
Tesla coil was invented and used in electronic equipment, television and radio sets. The unit of
magnetic field density was named after him.
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-1887)
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff was a German physicist. He developed Kirchhoff’s law that allows
calculation of the voltages, currents and resistance of electrical networks.
James Prescott Joule (1818-1889)
James Prescott Joule was a brewer and an English physicist. He discovered the law of
conservation of energy. The unit of energy – Joule was named in his honor. To develop the
scale of temperature, he worked with Lord Kelvin.
Joseph Henry (1799-1878)
Joseph Henry was an American scientist, and independently discovered electromagnetic
induction in the year 1831 – a year before faraday’s discovery. The unit of induction was named
after him.
Lee De Forest (1873-1961)
Lee de forest was an American inventor, and he invented the first triode vacuum tube: Audion
tube in 1906. He was honored as the father of radio.
Walter schottky (1886-1997)
Walter schottky was a German physicist. He defined shot noise-random electron noise in
thermionic tubes, and invented the multiple grid vacuum tube
Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890-1954)
Edwin Howard Armstrong was an inventor and an American electrical engineer. He invented
electronic oscillator and regenerative feedback. In 1917, he invented super-heterodyne radio
and patented FM radio in the year 1933.
Elprocus (2013). Retrieved from https://www.elprocus.com/know-about-brief-history-of-
electronics-and-their-generations/.
Vacuum Tube
Alternatively referred to as an electron tube or valve and first developed by John Ambrose
Fleming in 1904. The vacuum tube is a glass tube that has its gas removed, creating a vacuum.
Vacuum tubes contain electrodes for controlling electron flow and were used in early
computers as a switch or an amplifier. The picture shows a collection of different vacuum tubes
used with different devices.
Vacuum tubes were also used in radios, televisions, radar equipment, and telephone systems
during the first half of the 1900s. In the 1950s, the transistor started to replace the vacuum
tube. As computing devices started to become smaller in size, transistors were more ideal to
use due to their smaller size as well. Vacuum tubes were larger in size and did not fit well for
smaller computing devices, thus leading to their reduced usage. Today, vacuum tubes are no
longer used in electronic equipment.
Sir John Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945) was an English electrical engineer and physicist,
known primarily for inventing in 1904 the first vacuum tube. It was also called a thermionic
valve, vacuum diode, kenotron, thermionic tube, or Fleming valve. Fleming made numerous
contributions not only to electronics, but also to photometry, electric measurements and
wireless telegraphy. He became a consultant to the Edison Electric Light Company and a
popular teacher at University College. He was knighted in 1929 for the many advances he had
made to electrical and electronic engineering. Fleming was the author of more than a hundred
scientific papers and books, including the influential "The Alternate Current Transformer"
(1889), "The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy" (1906), "The Propagation of Electric
Currents in Telephone and Telegraph Conductors" (1911) and "Memoirs of a Scientific Life"
(1934).
The Fleming's vacuum tube essentially consisted of an incandescent light bulb with an extra
electrode inside. When the bulb's filament is heated white-hot, electrons are boiled off its
surface and into the vacuum inside the bulb. If the extra electrode (also called a "plate" or
"anode") is made more positive than the hot filament, a direct current flows through the
vacuum. And since the extra electrode is cold and the filament is hot, this current can only flow
from the filament to the electrode, not the other way. So, AC signals can be converted into DC.
https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/diode.html
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/v/vacuumtu.htm
Semiconductors
Semiconductors are used extensively in electronic circuits. As its name implies, a
semiconductor is a material that conducts current, but only partly. The conductivity of a
semiconductor is somewhere between that of an insulator, which has almost no conductivity,
and a conductor, which has almost full conductivity. Most semiconductors are crystals made of
certain materials, most commonly silicon.
To understand how semiconductors work, you must first understand a little about how
electrons are organized in an atom. The electrons in an atom are organized in layers. These
layers are called shells. The outermost shell is called the valence shell.
The electrons in this shell are the ones that form bonds with neighboring atoms. Such bonds
are called covalent bonds. Most conductors have just one electron in the valence shell.
Semiconductors, on the other hand, typically have four electrons in their valence shell.
If all the neighboring atoms are of the same type, it’s possible for all the valence electrons to
bind with valence electrons from other atoms. When that happens, the atoms arrange
themselves into structures called crystals. Semiconductors are made out of such crystals,
usually silicon crystals.
Pure silicon crystals are not all that useful electronically. But if you introduce small amounts of
other elements into a crystal, the crystal starts to conduct in an interesting way.
The process of deliberately introducing other elements into a crystal is called doping. The
element introduced by doping is called a dopant. By carefully controlling the doping process
and the dopants that are used, silicon crystals can transform into one of two distinct types of
conductors:
N-type semiconductor: Created when the dopant is an element that has five electrons in its
valence layer. Phosphorus is commonly used for this purpose.
The phosphorus atoms join right in the crystal structure of the silicon, each one bonding with
four adjacent silicon atoms just like a silicon atom would. Because the phosphorus atom has
five electrons in its valence shell, but only four of them are bonded to adjacent atoms, the fifth
valence electron is left hanging out with nothing to bond to.
The extra valence electrons in the phosphorous atoms start to behave like the single valence
electrons in a regular conductor such as copper. They are free to move about. Because this
type of semiconductor has extra electrons, it’s called an N-type semiconductor.
P-type semiconductor: Happens when the dopant (such as boron) has only three electrons in
the valence shell. When a small amount is incorporated into the crystal, the atom is able to
bond with four silicon atoms, but since it has only three electrons to offer, a hole is created.
The hole behaves like a positive charge, so semiconductors doped in this way are called P-type
semiconductors
Like a positive charge, holes attract electrons. But when an electron moves into a hole, the
electron leaves a new hole at its previous location. Thus, in a P-type semiconductor, holes are
constantly moving around within the crystal as electrons constantly try to fill them up.
When voltage is applied to either an N-type or a P-type semiconductor, current flows, for the
same reason that it flows in a regular conductor: The negative side of the voltage pushes
electrons, and the positive side pulls them. The result is that the random electron and hole
movement that’s always present in a semiconductor becomes organized in one direction,
creating measurable electric current.
Lowe, D. (2019). Electronics Basics: What Is a Semiconductor? Retrieved from
https://www.dummies.com/programming/electronics/components/electronics-basics-
what-is-a-semiconductor/.