The electronics industry is the economic sector that produces electronic devices. It emerged in the 20th century and is today one of the largest global industries. Contemporary society uses a vast array of electronic devices built-in automated or semi-automated factories operated by the industry. Products are primarily assembled from metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistors and integrated circuits, the latter principally by photolithography and often on printed circuit boards.[citation needed]
The industry's size, the use of toxic materials, and the difficulty of recycling have led to a series of problems with electronic waste. International regulation and environmental legislation have been developed to address the issues.[citation needed]
The electronics industry consists of various sectors. The central driving force behind the entire electronics industry is the semiconductor industry sector,[1] which has annual sales of over $481 billion as of 2018.[2] The largest industry sector is e-commerce, which generated over $29 trillion in 2017