Talking about your town

All things high tech

High technology (high tech) or frontier technology (frontier tech) is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology available.[1] It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest technology on the market.[2] The opposite of high tech is low technology, referring to simple, often traditional or mechanical technology; for example, a slide rule is a low-tech calculating device.[3][better source needed]

The phrase was used in a 1958 The New York Times story advocating "atomic energy" for Europe: "... Western Europe, with its dense population and its high technology ...."[4] Robert Metz used the term in a financial column in 1969: "Arthur H. Collins of Collins Radio] controls a score of high technology patents in a variety of fields."[5] and in a 1971 article used the abbreviated form, "high tech."

A widely used classification of high-technological manufacturing industries is provided by the OECD.[7] It is based on the intensity of research and development activities used in these industries within OECD countries, resulting in four distinct categories.

Startups working on high technologies (or developing new high technologies) are sometimes referred to as deep tech; the term may also refer to disruptive technologies based on scientific discoveries in several branches.

High-tech, as opposed to high-touch, may refer to self-service experiences that do not require human interaction.

Electronics comprises the physics, engineering, technology and applications that deal with the emission, flow and control of electrons in vacuum and matter.[1] It uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification and rectification, which distinguishes it from classical electrical engineering which uses passive effects such as resistance, capacitance and inductance to control current flow.

Electronics has had a major effect on the development of modern society. The identification of the electron in 1897, along with the subsequent invention of the vacuum tube which could amplify and rectify small electrical signals, inaugurated the field of electronics and the electron age.[2] This distinction started around 1906 with the invention by Lee De Forest of the triode, which made electrical amplification of weak radio signals and audio signals possible with a non-mechanical device. Until 1950, this field was called "radio technology" because its principal application was the design and theory of radio transmitters, receivers, and vacuum tubes.