History of Technology

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Selected landmarks in

The History of Electronics

A contribution to the Institution's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2021
from the IET History of Technology Network

This is one of a series of timelines which focus on a selection of engineering and technology
landmarks which have occurred during the lifetime of the Institution since its foundation in
1871.
Comments regarding any errors in, or significant additions to, this timeline should be sent to the
History of Technology Network Manager Anne Locker by Email to [email protected]

Date Event

1870 - 1879

1871 IET FOUNDED AS SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS

1874 Irish physicist George Stoney suggests the existence of a particle, which
he initially called an ‘electrine’ - later the name changed to ‘electron’ see
1897

In Germany Karl Braun identifies asymmetric conduction across the

contact between a crystal and a metallic wire – basis of the radio Cats
Whisker detector

1875 In USA Edison observes dark deposit on inside surfaces of incandescent

lamps – the Edison Effect. Later identified as thermionic electron
emission.

1880 – 1889

The Piezo-electric effect where mechanical stress in certain crystals

creates electric potential is discovered by French brothers Pierre and
Jacques Curie

1888 Austrian Freiderich Reinitzer identifies liquid crystals. Years later these
crystals form the basis of use as TV screens, computer monitors and
other display devices

1890-1899

1891 George Stoney’s term ‘electrine’ replaced by ‘electron’

Selected landmarks in the history of Electronics - Page 2

Date Event
1894 Jagadash Chandra Bose in India identifies semi-conductors

1895 Wilhelm Rontgen at Wurzburg University discovers X-Rays using a

Crookes tube

1897 J.J.Thompson at Cambridge measures the charge-mass ratio of cathode

rays finding they were groups of negatively charges particles –originally
called ‘corpuscles’ later renamed ‘electrons’ see 1874

German engineer Karl Braun builds the first cathode ray tube by adding a
fluorescent screen to one end of a Crooke’s tube.

1898 Valdemar Poulsen in Denmark achieves the first magnetic recording, later
forming the basis of video and audio recording and data storage in
computing.

1900-1909

1901 Jagadash Chandra Bose files for a US patent for a lead sulphide crystal
and a metal wire point contact diode (cats whisker) for detecting
electromagnetic waves

1904 John Ambrose Fleming at UCL, working as consultant for Marconi,

investigates the Edison Effect and creates the thermionic diode –he
named it a ‘valve’ as it acted like a water valve with current flow only in
one direction making it suitable as a radio signal detector. In USA the
term tube was used instead of valve. Some regard this as the the birth of
the electronics era ?

1905 Lee de Forest in USA introduces a grid between cathode and anode in
the diode to control electron flow. He names it the ‘Audion’ - later
renamed the triode.

Einstein publishes a paper explaining the photo electric effect for which he
would be awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921

1907 H.J.Round at Marconi observes electroluminescence effect – the basis of

Light Emitting Diodes (LED) developed later - see 1927

1909 Braun and Marconi awarded Nobel Prize in physics

1910-1919

1911 Ernest Rutherford, assisted by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden at

Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University identifies structure of the
atom

1912

1913 The ‘Tetrode’ a 4 element thermionic valve developed

Selected landmarks in the history of Electronics - Page 3

Date Event
1917 Einstein introduces concept of stimulated emission – this provides the
theoretical basis for the creation of MASERS and LASERS in the
1950/60s

1921 Einstein awarded physics Nobel Prize for explaining photo electric effect

1920-1929

1923 Zworykin patents the iconoscope for use as electronic video camera

1926 Holst & Telegen develop the 5 element pentode valve

1927 Russian Oleg Losev creates the first Light Emitting Diode (LED)

1928 German Engineer Fritz Pfleumer patents magnetic tape for recording –
later used for audio and video cassettes and early data storage methods

1929 Tihanyl proposes the charge storage technology concept

In Japan K. Okabe creates the slotted anode magnetron for generating

microwave frequencies

1930-1939

1931 First practical iconoscope developed by Essie

1932 Tedham and McGee at EMI develop the Emitron TV camera

Austrian engineer Gustav Tauschek creates the magnetic drum. Concept

eventually leads to data storage by Hard Disc Drives (HDD)

1934 Super (i.e. more sensitive) Emitron developed and used by BBC TV

Hans Hollmann at Telefunken creates a 4 cavity magnetron

1936 Andy Haeff at RCA patents the Travelling Wave Tube (TWT)

In USSR Alekseev and Malairov develop a multi cavity magnetron

1937 Rusel & Variab invent the Klystron microwave valve

1940-1949

1940 Russel Ohl patents the p-n semiconductor junction

Randell and Boot at Birmingham University develop a high power multi

cavity magnetron to improve radar sensitivity. Radar defence was critical
for the UK during WW2. USA assist UK in the production of these
devices
Selected landmarks in the history of Electronics - Page 4

Date Event
1947 John Bardeen and Walter Bratten members of team led by William
Shockley at Bell labs USA create the first point contact transistor

1950-1959

1950 William Shockley published "Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors",

based on his ground-breaking work at Bell Labs on semiconductors.

1951 William Shockley at Bell Labs patents bipolar p-n junction transistor,
superior to the point contact version

Charles Hard Townes outlines concept of the MASER (microwave

amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)

1952 UK engineer and IEE member Geoffrey Dummer presents paper in

Washington suggesting that transistors, and other components could be
fashioned in one solid block to improve circuit reliability - the first proposal
of Integrated Circuits

William Shockley at Bell Labs proposes Field Effect Transistor (FET)

1955 Silicon dioxide identified by Fosch and Derick at Bell labs as a suitable
substance for creating a mask during diffusion in silicon chip production

1956 Shockley, Bardeen and Bratten awarded Nobel Prize in Physics

A solid state MASER for low noise amplification reception at satellite

Earth stations is created by Nicolaas Bloembergen at Harvard University

Shockley moves from New jersey to California and establishes Shockley

Semiconductor Labs –regarded as the start of Silicon Valley

1957 Gordon Gould a PhD student at Columbia University conceives idea of

the LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). At
about the same time at Bell Labs Cha6rles Hard Townes and Arthur
Schawlow develop the concept of an optical MASER working in the infra-
red and visible light region, for which Bell Labs file for a patent in 1958
(granted in 1960). Gould is denied a patent. This leads to a long legal
dispute until Gould is eventually granted a patent in 1973, The question of
who first conceived the LASER is still debated by historians

Silicon Control Rectifier (SCR) or THYRISTOR created for power

applications

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, members of Shockley’s team leave to

establish Fairchild Semiconductors in Silicon Valley as a subsidiary of
Fairchild cameras.

1958 Diffused junction MESA transistors are manufactured by Fairchild. MESA

transistors are so named due to their shape
Selected landmarks in the history of Electronics - Page 5

Date Event
Jack Kirby at Texas Instruments builds first integrated circuit using
surface mounted MESA transistors, resistors and capacitors on one solid
block

Leo Esaki of Sony demonstrates the tunnel diode

1959 Jean Hoerni develops the planar process which revolutionises

semiconductor and integrated circuit manufacturing processes.

Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductors uses Jean Hoerni’s planar

process to manufacture world’s first monolithic integrated circuits

1960-1969

1960 First working LASER created by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Aircraft

Company

PLASMA TV screen created by placing a matrix of small cells of ionised

gas which respond to electric signals, between two glass plates.

First FET is constructed by Kahng & Attala (Bell) using Metal Oxide
Silicon (MOS)

1962 Nick Holonyak creates 1st visible light LED using gallium arsenide
phosphate

MOSFET (metal oxide silicon field effect transistor) created by Hofstein

Heiad

1964 A practical Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is created by the RCA Company
(Radio Corporation of America

Charles Townes received Nobel Prize for his fundamental work on

quantum electronics and the MASER and LASER concepts

1965 Gordon Moore predicts doubling of components per chip every 2 years
(later adjusted to doubling transistors per chip every 2years : Moore’s Law

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore establish a second company INTEL

(Integrated Electronics) also located in Silicon Valley

1969 Willard Boyle and George Smith at Bell Labs create the Charge Coupled
Device (CCD) using MOS capacitors allowing transformation of light into a
series of stored charges : used in video and still cameras, medical
devices, telescopes etc

1970-1979

1970 The PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory) chip created

Selected landmarks in the history of Electronics - Page 6

Date Event
1971 At Intel the first MICROPROCESSOR is created – the 4004 – a 4 bit
device it has an arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), a control unit, registers,a
bus system and a clock effectively being a computer on a chip

The EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) is created,

This has a window through which ultra violet light can be shone on the
chip to erase the existing then allowing the writing of new programmes

In Switzerland theTwisted-Nematic (TN) LCD mode of operation created.

These give a black-on-grey or black-on-silver display suitable for small
alphanumeric displays such as wrist watches,

1972 At Hull University a stable crystal material biphenyl is identified for LCDs

At Intel a 2nd generation 8 bit MICROPROCESSOR – the 8008 – is

created

Motorola introduce their first MICROPROCESSOR – the 6800

An EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) is

created at the Electrotechnical Laboratory in Japan by Tarui, Hayashi and
Nagai. An EEPROM avoids need for use of ultraviolet light as for the
EPROM

1973 After protracted court cases in the USA Gordon Gould is granted patent
rights to the LASER as his notebooks prove he conceived the concept
before Townes and Schawlow – see 1957.

1975 Kodak creates arguably the first digital camera using CCD technology

1978 Walter Spear and Peter LeComber at Dundee University invent the
amorphous silicon thin-film field transistor switch used in LCDs in TVs and
other devices

The Laserdisc an optical disc data recording format is created in the USA,
a predecessor of the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD)

Intel introduce the first 16 bit MICROPROCESSOR

1980-1989

1980 Sony and Phillips engineers develop the audio compact disc (CD) . Later
developments include a CD-ROM created for computer memory storage

1981 Arthur Schawlow receives share of Nobel Prize for his work on LASER
spectroscopy

1982 First pre-recorded audio CDs come on the market

1983 First commercial video cameras using CCD produced by Sony

Selected landmarks in the history of Electronics - Page 7

Date Event
The PENTIUM family of MICROPROCESSORs is released by Intel

1990-1999

1990 British chip design company ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) founded as
a joint venture between Apple Computers, Acorn Computers and VLSI
(very large scale integration) Technology

1996 Blank DVDs (digital video or versatile discs) for video or data recording
available

1998 Sony develop the Flash Drive memory stick for digital cameras and
mobile phones based on the MOSFET with floating gate

1999 SanDisc, Panasonic and Toshiba develop the secure digital (SD) memory
card, to compete with Sony’s Flash Drive

2000-2009

2000 Jack Kirby awarded Nobel Prize in physics for invention of the integrated
circuit. Speculation that Robert Noyce would have shared award if he had
survived.

The 32 bit Pentium MICROPROCESSOR available from Intel.

2007 Sony introduce an OLED Tv (Organic LED television)

2009 Willard Boyle and Charles Smith jointly awarded half the Nobel Prize for
Physics for developing the Charge Coupled Device (CCD). Charles Kao
shares the prize for his pioneering work in the 1960s on optical fibres for
transmission systems.

2010-2019

2010 Apple introduce the iPAD tablet computer

Siri – a voice activated virtual personal assistant introduced by Apple

The AMOLED (active matrix organic LED) is created

2014 Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura awarded Nobel Prize
in Physics for the invention of the ‘blue’ LED. Blue LEDs allows production
of energy saving white light bulbs in place of inefficient incandescent

Voice activated personal assistant ALEXA introduced by Amazon

2019 Foldable screen displays for use in mobile phones become available
Selected landmarks in the history of Electronics - Page 8

For further information see: -

Bibliography
Williams, J.B. The Electronics Revolution- inventing the future Springer Parxis -publishing,
Chichester, UK, 2017
Web Sources for further reading
1 George Stoney and the term ‘electron’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Johnstone_Stoney
2 The Cathode Ray tube
https://www.crtsite.com/page6.html

3 J.J.Thomson and discovery of the electron

https://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/EA/THOMSONann.HTML
4 Henry J Round and electroluminescence
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap30311/round-henry-joseph
5 Ambrose Fleming and the invention of the thermionic diode valve
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/tns.2005.011?journalCode=yhet19
6 A timeline of semiconductors
https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/
7 William Shockley and the invention of the transistor
rhttps://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/leading-figures/william-shockley-and-the-
invention-of-the-transistor/
8 The Light Emitting diode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode
9 Integrated circuits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit
10 Microprocessors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor
12 Invention of the LASER
https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200312/history.cfm
13 Charge Coupled Devices
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device
14 The ‘blue’ LED
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29518521