What are the key milestones in the development of semiconductors? Part 1

A history of the development of electronics from early vacuum tubes to modern integrated circuits. The vacuum tube was an electronic component used in early electronic devices that utilised the flow of electrons in a vacuum to control current. Subsequently, the advent of the transistor marked a major advance in electronics, with transistors being smaller, more reliable and more energy efficient than vacuum tubes. The inventors of the transistor, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this.

The invention of the transistor laid the foundation for the development of integrated circuits. Integrated circuits (ICs) are made up of many electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) integrated on a small semiconductor chip. This integration greatly reduces the size of electronic devices, improves reliability and performance, and reduces cost.

The article mentions two important inventors of the integrated circuit, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce, who each independently invented the integrated circuit. Fairchild Semiconductor's 910 resistor transistor logic (RTL) gate was the first commercially available integrated circuit device.

The article also hints at a second part that may discuss the advances in semiconductor technology over the past sixty years, including key technologies such as field-effect transistors (FETs) and metal-oxide semiconductors (MOSs), as well as fabrication and packaging technologies for these miniature components.