The branch of electronics concerned with or applied to the realization of electronic circuits or systems from extremely small electronic parts. It includes the design, production, and application of any technique to reduce the cost, size and weight of electronic parts, subassemblies, and assemblies and to replace vacuum-tube circuits with solid-state compatible parts. Increased miniaturization is particularly desirable in the field of computers and therefore integrated circuits of ever increasing packing density are being designed. See also nanoelectronics.