Electronic Devices: Course Overview

Demonstrative Video

First amplifying device - the triode vacuum tube - Fleming (1904)
Solid-state point-contact diode (silicon) - Pickard (1906)
First radio circuits from diodes and triodes (1907–1927)
Super heterodyne receiver - Armstrong (1920)
Demonstration of television (1925)
The field effect device - Lilienfield (1925)
Frequency modulation (FM) - Armstrong (1933)
Radar (1940)
First revolution - Silicon transistor - Bell Telephone Laboratories (1947)
Color television (1950), Unipolar FET - Shockley (1952)
PNPN triggering transistor (thyristors or SCRs) - Bell Laboratories (1956)
Commercial thyristor - General Electric (1958) - Beginning of Power Electronics
First integrated circuit (IC) - Beginning of microelectronics (1958)
First commercial operational amplifier (1968)
Intel - 4004 microprocessor (1971), 8-bit microprocessor (1972), Gigabit memory chip (1995)

Moore’s Law (Gordon E. Moore): The number of transistors in an IC doubles approximately every 24 months, optimizing density and cost.