n.
Branch of physics that deals with the emission, behaviour, and effects of electron s and with electronic devices.
The beginnings of electronics can be traced to experiments with electricity . In the 1880s Thomas Alva Edison and others observed the flow of current between elements in an evacuated glass tube. A two-electrode vacuum tube constructed by John A. Fleming (18491945) produced a useful output current. The Audion , invented by Lee De Forest (1907), was followed by further improvements. The invention of the transistor at Bell Labs (1947) initiated a progressive miniaturization of electronic components that by the mid 1980s resulted in high-density microprocessor s, which in turn led to tremendous advances in computer technology and computer-based automated systems. See also semiconductor .