After the transistor came of age, there was still room for the venerable vacuum tube in the burgeoning world of electronics. But even though that world is getting bigger, its parts are getting smaller. Transistors, diodes, tunnel diodes and their proliferating cousins are getting more versatile as they shrink. And the vacuum tube is slowly dying out like the ancient dinosaur. At the annual exhibition held by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Manhattan's Coliseum last week, there was scarcely a tube anywhere to be seen.
Etching in Patterns. Yesterday's...