Electronic devices: digital logic

In addition to power-line coupled noise, computers and cathode-ray-tube monitors can be a troublesome source of interference in many clinical and laboratory situations. Digital logic electronics often involve fast switching of large currents, particularly in the use of switching-type solid-state power supplies. These produce and can radiate harmonics that spread over a wide frequency spectrum. Proximity of the amplifier or the monitored subject to these devices can sometimes result in pulselike biopotential interference. 

Servomechanism theory was further developed during World War II. The development of the transistor in 1951, and hence, digital electronics, enabled the development of electronic control and feedback devices. The field grew rapidly, especially following the development of the microcomputer in 1969. Digital logic and machine control can now be interfaced in an effective manner, such that today s automated systems function with an unprecedented degree of precision and dependability. 

Digital logic has become the standard structural operating principle of most modern electronic devices, from the cheapest wristwatch to the most advanced supercomputer. Applications can be identified as programmable and nonprogrammable. 

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