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Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip, computer chip, or simply chip, is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors. These components are etched onto a small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices, including computers, smartphones, and televisions, to perform various functions such as processing and storing information. They have greatly impacted the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization and enhanced functionality.

"Silicon chip" redirects here. For the electronics magazine, see Silicon Chip.

Integrated circuits are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, and less expensive than those constructed of discrete components, allowing a large transistor count.


The IC's mass production capability, reliability, and building-block approach to integrated circuit design have ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of designs using discrete transistors. ICs are now used in virtually all electronic equipment and have revolutionized the world of electronics. Computers, mobile phones, and other home appliances are now essential parts of the structure of modern societies, made possible by the small size and low cost of ICs such as modern computer processors and microcontrollers.


Very-large-scale integration was made practical by technological advancements in semiconductor device fabrication. Since their origins in the 1960s, the size, speed, and capacity of chips have progressed enormously, driven by technical advances that fit more and more transistors on chips of the same size – a modern chip may have many billions of transistors in an area the size of a human fingernail. These advances, roughly following Moore's law, make the computer chips of today possess millions of times the capacity and thousands of times the speed of the computer chips of the early 1970s.


ICs have three main advantages over circuits constructed out of discrete components: size, cost and performance. The size and cost is low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography rather than being constructed one transistor at a time. Furthermore, packaged ICs use much less material than discrete circuits. Performance is high because the IC's components switch quickly and consume comparatively little power because of their small size and proximity. The main disadvantage of ICs is the high initial cost of designing them and the enormous capital cost of factory construction. This high initial cost means ICs are only commercially viable when high production volumes are anticipated.

and the closely related active-pixel sensors, are chips that are sensitive to light. They have largely replaced photographic film in scientific, medical, and consumer applications. Billions of these devices are now produced each year for applications such as cellphones, tablets, and digital cameras. This sub-field of ICs won the Nobel Prize in 2009.[44]

Charge-coupled devices

Very small mechanical devices driven by electricity can be integrated onto chips, a technology known as (MEMS). These devices were developed in the late 1980s[45] and are used in a variety of commercial and military applications. Examples include DLP projectors, inkjet printers, and accelerometers and MEMS gyroscopes used to deploy automobile airbags.

microelectromechanical systems

Since the early 2000s, the integration of optical functionality () into silicon chips has been actively pursued in both academic research and in industry resulting in the successful commercialization of silicon based integrated optical transceivers combining optical devices (modulators, detectors, routing) with CMOS based electronics.[46] Photonic integrated circuits that use light such as Lightelligence's PACE (Photonic Arithmetic Computing Engine) also being developed, using the emerging field of physics known as photonics.[47]

optical computing

Integrated circuits are also being developed for applications in medical implants or other bioelectronic devices.[48] Special sealing techniques have to be applied in such biogenic environments to avoid corrosion or biodegradation of the exposed semiconductor materials.[49]

sensor

are categorized as logic ICs (such as microprocessors and microcontrollers), memory chips (such as MOS memory and floating-gate memory), interface ICs (level shifters, serializer/deserializer, etc.), power management ICs, and programmable devices.

Digital ICs

are categorized as linear integrated circuits and RF circuits (radio frequency circuits).

Analog ICs

are categorized as data acquisition ICs (including A/D converters, D/A converters, digital potentiometers), clock/timing ICs, switched capacitor (SC) circuits, and RF CMOS circuits.

Mixed-signal integrated circuits

(3D ICs) are categorized into through-silicon via (TSV) ICs and Cu-Cu connection ICs.

Three-dimensional integrated circuits

Integrated circuits can be broadly classified into analog,[66] digital[67] and mixed signal,[68] consisting of analog and digital signaling on the same IC.


Digital integrated circuits can contain billions[42] of logic gates, flip-flops, multiplexers, and other circuits in a few square millimeters. The small size of these circuits allows high speed, low power dissipation, and reduced manufacturing cost compared with board-level integration. These digital ICs, typically microprocessors, DSPs, and microcontrollers, use boolean algebra to process "one" and "zero" signals.


Among the most advanced integrated circuits are the microprocessors or "cores", used in personal computers, cell-phones, microwave ovens, etc. Several cores may be integrated together in a single IC or chip. Digital memory chips and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are examples of other families of integrated circuits.


In the 1980s, programmable logic devices were developed. These devices contain circuits whose logical function and connectivity can be programmed by the user, rather than being fixed by the integrated circuit manufacturer. This allows a chip to be programmed to do various LSI-type functions such as logic gates, adders and registers. Programmability comes in various forms – devices that can be programmed only once, devices that can be erased and then re-programmed using UV light, devices that can be (re)programmed using flash memory, and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) which can be programmed at any time, including during operation. Current FPGAs can (as of 2016) implement the equivalent of millions of gates and operate at frequencies up to 1 GHz.[69]


Analog ICs, such as sensors, power management circuits, and operational amplifiers (op-amps), process continuous signals, and perform analog functions such as amplification, active filtering, demodulation, and mixing.


ICs can combine analog and digital circuits on a chip to create functions such as analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters. Such mixed-signal circuits offer smaller size and lower cost, but must account for signal interference. Prior to the late 1990s, radios could not be fabricated in the same low-cost CMOS processes as microprocessors. But since 1998, radio chips have been developed using RF CMOS processes. Examples include Intel's DECT cordless phone, or 802.11 (Wi-Fi) chips created by Atheros and other companies.[70]


Modern electronic component distributors often further sub-categorize integrated circuits:

Integrated circuits are composed of many overlapping layers, each defined by photolithography, and normally shown in different colors. Some layers mark where various dopants are diffused into the substrate (called diffusion layers), some define where additional ions are implanted (implant layers), some define the conductors (doped polysilicon or metal layers), and some define the connections between the conducting layers (via or contact layers). All components are constructed from a specific combination of these layers.

In a self-aligned process, a transistor is formed wherever the gate layer (polysilicon or metal) crosses a diffusion layer (this is called "the self-aligned gate").[72]: p.1 (see Fig. 1.1) 

CMOS

in form very much like the parallel conducting plates of a traditional electrical capacitor, are formed according to the area of the "plates", with insulating material between the plates. Capacitors of a wide range of sizes are common on ICs.

Capacitive structures

Meandering stripes of varying lengths are sometimes used to form on-chip , though most logic circuits do not need any resistors. The ratio of the length of the resistive structure to its width, combined with its sheet resistivity, determines the resistance.

resistors

More rarely, can be built as tiny on-chip coils, or simulated by gyrators.

inductive structures

Silicon labeling and graffiti[edit]

To allow identification during production, most silicon chips will have a serial number in one corner. It is also common to add the manufacturer's logo. Ever since ICs were created, some chip designers have used the silicon surface area for surreptitious, non-functional images or words. These are sometimes referred to as chip art, silicon art, silicon graffiti or silicon doodling.

The

555 timer IC

The

Operational amplifier

7400-series integrated circuits

the CMOS counterpart to the 7400 series (see also: 74HC00 series)

4000-series integrated circuits

generally regarded as the first commercially available microprocessor, which led to the 8008, the famous 8080 CPU, the 8086, 8088 (used in the original IBM PC), and the fully-backward compatible (with the 8088/8086) 80286, 80386/i386, i486, etc.

Intel 4004

The and Zilog Z80 microprocessors, used in many home computers of the early 1980s

MOS Technology 6502

The series of computer-related chips, leading to the 68000 and 88000 series (the 68000 series was very successful and was used in the Apple Lisa and pre-PowerPC-based Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST/TT/Falcon030, and NeXT families of computers, along with many models of workstations and servers from many manufacturers in the 80s, along with many other systems and devices)

Motorola 6800

The of analog integrated circuits

LM-series

Central processing unit

Chip carrier

CHIPS and Science Act

Chipset

Czochralski method

Dark silicon

Ion implantation

Integrated injection logic

Integrated passive devices

Interconnect bottleneck

Heat generation in integrated circuits

High-temperature operating life

Microelectronics

Monolithic microwave integrated circuit

Multi-threshold CMOS

Silicon–germanium

Sound chip

SPICE

Thermal simulations for integrated circuits

Hybrot

Veendrick, H.J.M. (2017). Nanometer CMOS ICs, from Basics to ASICs. Springer.  978-3-319-47595-0. OCLC 990149326.

ISBN

Baker, R.J. (2010). CMOS: Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation (3rd ed.). Wiley-IEEE.  978-0-470-88132-3. OCLC 699889340.

ISBN

Marsh, Stephen P. (2006). Practical MMIC design. Artech House.  978-1-59693-036-0. OCLC 1261968369.

ISBN

Camenzind, Hans (2005). (PDF). Virtual Bookworm. ISBN 978-1-58939-718-7. OCLC 926613209. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2017. Hans Camenzind invented the 555 timer

Designing Analog Chips

Hodges, David; Jackson, Horace; Saleh, Resve (2003). Analysis and Design of Digital Integrated Circuits. McGraw-Hill.  978-0-07-228365-5. OCLC 840380650.

ISBN

Rabaey, J.M.; Chandrakasan, A.; Nikolic, B. (2003). (2nd ed.). Pearson. ISBN 978-0-13-090996-1. OCLC 893541089.

Digital Integrated Circuits

Mead, Carver; Conway, Lynn (1991). . Addison Wesley Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-201-04358-7. OCLC 634332043.

Introduction to VLSI systems

Media related to Integrated circuits at Wikimedia Commons

The first monolithic integrated circuits

including access to most of the datasheets for the parts.

A large chart listing ICs by generic number

The History of the Integrated Circuit