Electronics: The Life Story of a Technology"'Electronics' provides a welcome, comprehensive history of one of the late twentieth century's greatest technologies: electronic devices. Some of them, the laser and the microchip for example, have become household words, and yet their origins and operation are largely unknown to the general public. Other devices that form the heart of important electronic systems remain mysterious outside the field of engineering. "Electronics" surveys the histories of all these devices, showing how they relate to each other and to the world at large. The development of electronic devices brought about many of the most important historical events of the past fifty years, such as the introduction of television, the Cold War, the Space Race, the rise of Asian semiconductor manufacturers, and the emergence of the surveillance society. Connecting technology and events, "Electronics" also relates the fascinating stories of how scientists and engineers created and commercialized such devices as the transistor, the Magnetron tube used to power microwave ovens, the CRT (cathode ray tube), the laser, the first integrated circuit, the microprocessor, and memory chips." - back cover. |
Contents
1 The Origins of Electronics 19001950 | 1 |
2 From Tubes to Semiconductors | 35 |
3 Microchips and Lasers | 69 |
4 The Peak Years | 101 |
5 The Triumph of Microelectronics | 131 |
6 Conclusions | 173 |
Glossary | 181 |
| 187 | |
| 191 | |
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amplifier analog announced applications array AT&T audio beam became began Bell Laboratories Bell Labs bubble memory calculators camera cathode color commercial communication companies components consumer Corporation decade demonstrated developed device research early elec electron device emit energy engineers equipment example Fairchild fiber-optic field firms frequency GaAs gallium arsenide germanium important improved industry integrated circuits Intel introduced invented Japanese junction transistor laser diodes late later layer light liquid crystal logic magnetic Magnetron manufacturing maser material memory chip microprocessor microwave military miniaturization missile Nick Holonyak operating optical output p-n junctions personal computer pixel point-contact point-contact transistor production pulses radar radio relays replaced result satellite screen semiconductor devices semiconductor laser Shockley signal silicon transistors solid-state Soviet switching tech techniques telephone television Texas Instruments tion triode tube technology types United vacuum tube voltage wafer William Shockley wire