Electronics can be traced back to centuries. Efforts began since that time itself not years or decades back. Many scientists have worked for the inventions in the electrical field. History of the science stood as the inspiration for the future generation innovators and scientists.
Important inventions came in this 21st century. Now, we are enjoying with the essence of the great inventions. The world is dependent on electronics today. We discuss here the evolution electronics until today. by the scientists.
Vacuum tube
The need for the detectors which can receive radio waves of Marconic’s radio was felt and for this a good rectifier to convert AC to DC. This made the invention of vacuum tube and thus how it came in to light and filled the gap.
The vacuum tube was invented by Fleming who used the principle of “Edison Effect”. The Edison effect speaks about the separation between the two conductors associated with the source of electricity. The conductors are heated to produce electric current, which means vacuum in between the conductors will act as a good carrier.
With the invention of the vacuum tube, the birth of electronics took place. Since then scientists are conducting research. The first generation computers are made of vacuum tubes and these were used during the world wars at that time for decoding the messages of enemy. These tubes are large in size and produce huge amount of heat. So, this problem led to further inventions.
Diode
The shortcomings of vacuum tubes led to the invention of diodes. These are nothing but the electrodes used in the vacuum tubes through which electric current passes. Scientists named them electrodes as diodes. In the advancement researches the diode size is reduced.
The function of a diode is to pass the electric current in only one direction and blocking the flow in other directions. Diodes are commonly used as rectifiers, logic gates, temperature measuring devices, etc. The major drawback with diodes is they get burnt when temperature increases, which leads to unintentional short circuits.
Transistor
When Bell Lab’s scientists were looking for alternatives to diodes and triodes that were in use in communication technology, research and findings by Russell Ohl declared that when pure silicon is doped with impurities of penta-valent and tri-valent materials, it can be used as a two-layer PN junction diode, which led to the concept called “Transistor effect”.
Electronics that we see today took its birth with transistor effect concept. After this, electronics was identified by scientists in electrical engineering and this led the path for computing world that uses various types of computer also boosted the research.
The transistor is an electronic device that consists of three electronics and can be used as a switch or an amplifier. However, the problem with this is assembling of electronic components on a mother board. This worsens the situation when metallic contacts cross each other or are crowded. This trouble led to the integrated circuits.
Integrated circuits
Integrated circuits started evolution in the market with MSL, SSL, LSL, VLSI, ulta large-scale, system-on-a-chip, wafer scale and 3D integrated circuits. Integrated circuits find large number of applications in digital ICs like logic gates, flip flops, timers, multiplexers, microprocessors, etc. ICS are mostly used electronics today from cars to space crafts, in switching telephone circuits and data processing, digital watch and scientific calculator for performing various functions, etc.
In near future, the electronics industry will start manufacturing organic semiconductors. These are eco-friendly when compared to inorganic semiconductors, and are more efficient than inorganic electronic devices.
