I began compiling the material for this work when the transistor was celebrating its golden jubilee. It justified me taking a broader look at the world of modern component families without a specific bias toward analog, digital or mixed signal component families.

Nature & human activities being analog, while the modern world of electronic engineering makes use of digital processing, one must be serious about the conversion process too. At the same time designers may have to appreciate a new theory… proposed by Theo A. M. Classen of Philips Semiconductors about the technology component necessary to increase the usefulness of an electronic system that,

$\mathrm{Usefulness}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{product}=\mathrm{Log}\left(\mathrm{Technology}\right)$

as cited by Brian Dippert in a recent EDN magazine (EDN, April 15, 1999, page 52).

My intention here is to offer a minute part of the massive world of semiconductors as examples and provide some guidance to designers, academics and students on how to keep balance in the overall design.

I would be thankful to readers & reviewers for feedback on how I have fared in this attempt.