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Solid-state electronic
Electronic

Electronic may refer to:*Electronics, devices that work by controlling the flow of electrons*Electronic music or electronica*Electronic ,**or their self-titled debut album Electronic ...
 components, devices, and systems are based entirely on the semiconductor
Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
, such as transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
s, microprocessor
Microprocessor

A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit . The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using Binary-coded decimal arithmetic on 4-bit Word ....
 chips, and the bubble memory
Bubble memory

Bubble memory is a type of non-volatile memory computer memory that uses a thin film of a magnetic material to hold small magnetized areas, known as bubbles or domains, which each store one bit of data....
. In solid-state components, there is no dependency in the electrical properties of a vacuum
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
 and no mechanical
Mechanical energy

In physics, mechanical energy describes the potential energy and kinetic energy present in the components of a mechanical system....
 action, no moving parts, although a considerable amount of electromagnetic
Electromagnetic

Electromagnetic may refer to:* Electromagnetic radiation* Electromagnetism...
 and quantum-mechanical
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the microscopic scale . Notable amongst these principles are both a dual wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation, and prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certaintie...
 action takes place within. The expression became prevalent in the 1950s and the 1960s, during the transition from vacuum tube
Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or just valve is a device used to amplifier, switch, otherwise modify, or create an Electricity signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space....
 technology to semiconductor diode
Diode

In electronics, a diode is a two-terminal device .Diodes have two active electrodes between which the signal of interest may flow, and most are used for their unidirectional electric current property....
s and transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
s.






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Solid-state electronic
Electronic

Electronic may refer to:*Electronics, devices that work by controlling the flow of electrons*Electronic music or electronica*Electronic ,**or their self-titled debut album Electronic ...
 components, devices, and systems are based entirely on the semiconductor
Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
, such as transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
s, microprocessor
Microprocessor

A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit . The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using Binary-coded decimal arithmetic on 4-bit Word ....
 chips, and the bubble memory
Bubble memory

Bubble memory is a type of non-volatile memory computer memory that uses a thin film of a magnetic material to hold small magnetized areas, known as bubbles or domains, which each store one bit of data....
. In solid-state components, there is no dependency in the electrical properties of a vacuum
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
 and no mechanical
Mechanical energy

In physics, mechanical energy describes the potential energy and kinetic energy present in the components of a mechanical system....
 action, no moving parts, although a considerable amount of electromagnetic
Electromagnetic

Electromagnetic may refer to:* Electromagnetic radiation* Electromagnetism...
 and quantum-mechanical
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the microscopic scale . Notable amongst these principles are both a dual wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation, and prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certaintie...
 action takes place within. The expression became prevalent in the 1950s and the 1960s, during the transition from vacuum tube
Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or just valve is a device used to amplifier, switch, otherwise modify, or create an Electricity signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space....
 technology to semiconductor diode
Diode

In electronics, a diode is a two-terminal device .Diodes have two active electrodes between which the signal of interest may flow, and most are used for their unidirectional electric current property....
s and transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
s. More recently, the integrated circuit
Integrated circuit

In electronics, an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin Wafer of semiconductor material....
 (IC), the light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode

A light-emitting diode , is an electronic light source. The LED was discovered in the early 20th century, and introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962....
 (LED), and the liquid-crystal display (LCD) have evolved as further examples of solid-state devices.

In a solid-state component, the current
Electric current

Electric current is the flow of electric charge. The electric charge may be either electrons or ions.The International System of Units unit of electric current intensity is the ampere....
 is confined to solid elements and compounds engineered specifically to switch and amplify it. Current flow can be understood in two forms: as negatively-charged electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s, and as positively-charged electron deficiencies called electron hole
Electron hole

An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study of physics and chemistry. The concept describes the lack of an electron....
s or just "holes". In some semiconductors, the current consists mostly of electrons; in other semiconductors, it consists mostly of "holes". Both the electron and the hole are called charge carriers.

For data storage, solid-state devices are much faster and more reliable than mechanical disks and tapes, but are usually more expensive. Although solid-state costs continually drop, disks, tapes, and optical disks also continue to improve their cost/performance ratio.

The first solid-state device was the "cat's whisker" detector, first used in 1930s radio receivers. A whisker-like wire was moved around on a solid crystal (such as a germanium
Germanium

Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, greyish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon....
 crystal) in order to detect a radio
Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
 signal. The solid-state device came into its own with the invention of the transistor
Transistor

In electronics, a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to Electronic amplifier or switch Electronics signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit....
 in 1947.

Examples of a non-solid-state electronic components are vacuum tube
Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or just valve is a device used to amplifier, switch, otherwise modify, or create an Electricity signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space....
s and cathode-ray tubes (CRTs).

See also

  • Semiconductor device
    Semiconductor device

    Semiconductor devices are electronic components that exploit the electronics properties of semiconductor materials, principally silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide....
  • Solid State Technology
  • Solar cell
    Solar cell

    A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts sunlight directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the source is unspecified....


Further reading


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