Qader 1

Period A3
Malik Qader

The history of
transistors,
vacuum tube,
integrated circuits
and relays

Transistors, vacuum tubes, and relays have been used in all computers
over the course of history and are/have been very important parts to a
computer.

What is a relay? A relay is a device

that uses an electromagnet to mechanically pull 2 connections together to
complete a circuit. This is operated by a small electrical current. What they
do is they can act like an automatic switch. For example when a robot has
sensor that reads light you can program the robot the follow that light. So
when the sensors sense light it will send a signal to the circuit board which
will send another signal to the relay, then the relay will activate the robots
leg movements.
These relays also do another very important thing. They can amplify
electrical current. This is useful because when the circuit board sends an
electrical signal to the relay to activate the leg movement it is not giving out
that much electricity. So they relay will amplify the electricity and give it the
legs that need a much more powerful source of electricity.
The vacuum tube does the same thing a

transistor does which is keep the electricity flow only going one direction. A
vacuum tube is glass surrounding a vacuum (an area that all gas has been
removed). Thomas Edison discovered that with a vacuum tube electricity
doesnt need a wire to travel through it can travel through a gas or even

empty space. Later on in 1904 a British scientist named John A. Fleming

made a vacuum tube know today as a diode. This diode was known as a
valve because it forced electricity to go one way. Getting a single direction
of electricity flow was very critical for radio sets.
A decade later the vacuum tube reached its full maturity when Lee De
Forest invented something he called the audion. Not only did it force3 the
current to go in a single direction but also was used to increase the current
along the way. Forest put a metal grid in the center of the tube and found
that by using a small input current to change the voltage on the grid, Forest
could control the flow of a second more powerful current.

Transistors are devices that control

the path of electrons and the flow of electricity. An example of what they do
is a water faucet. Transistors can control the electricity flow by stopping it
starting but it can also control the amount of electricity that goes through it.
Some of the first transistors were made at Bell Labs and they were originally
made from the element germanium. Scientist there knew that germanium
when pure was a good insulator. But by adding impurities (A process called
doping) it changes the germanium into a weak conductor, making it into
semiconductor.
There were two types of the semiconductor germanium, a negative
type (N-type) and a positive type (P-type). These types were discovered
about the time of WWII N-type had doping material that added electrons to
the germanium, making easier for electrons to go out.
P-type is the opposite of N-type; P-type had doping materials that
caused the germanium to lose electrons, so the electrons from other
materials flowed towards it. If you combine P-type and N-type by placing
next to each other you create a P-N diode. This diode was very useful in
electronic circuits because it allowed electrical current to flow but only in one
direction. These days however, instead of using germanium we used silicon-

based semiconductors, which are more reliable and cheap the germaniumbased transistors.

An integrated circuit is also called a microchip. It is a plate usually

made of silicone and on top is a set of electrical circuits. A microchip can be
very compact with having several million transistors and other electronic
components in an area the size of a fingernail. Microchips have 2 main
advantages: size and performance. Microchips are extremely small and take
up very little space and the performance is high because the transistors can
switch very quickly and requires little power to work.
All these devices are very important to computers to make them work.
They also are not just used for computers they can be used for big machines
to a hand size radio. Integrated circuits are in every electronic device and
have changed the entire world, and has not stopped since it was invented.

References
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/transistor1.htm
http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/events/vacuumt.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-Electronic-SwitchesWork-For-Noobs-Relays-and/
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/howrelayswork.html