integrated circuit (redirected from IC chip)

integrated circuit (IC), electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon. The circuit, often called a chip, is packaged in a hermetically sealed case or a nonhermetic plastic capsule, with leads extending from it for input, output, and power-supply connections, and for other connections that may be necessary when the device is put to use. Integrated circuits can be classified into two groups based on the type of transistors they contain. Bipolar integrated circuits contain bipolar junction transistors as their principle elements. Metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) integrated contain MOS transistors as their principle elements. Some integrated circuits contain both types of transistors. Integrated circuits are also categorized according to the number of transistors or other active circuit devices they contain. An IC is said to use small-scale integration (SSI) if it contains fewer than 10 transistors. An IC that contains from 10 to 100 transistors is said to use medium-scale integration. A large-scale integration (LSI) IC contains from 100 to 1,000 transistors, and one that uses very-large-scale integration (VLSI) contains more than 1,000 transistors. Some integrated circuits are analog devices; an operational amplifier is an example. Other ICs, such as the microprocessors used in computers, are digital devices. Some hybrid integrated circuits contain both analog and digital circuitry; a bilateral switch, which switches analog signals by means of a digital control signal is an example of a hybrid IC. Integrated circuit functions are virtually limitless. Improvements in IC manufacturing have led to increasingly dense and capable integrated circuits. Some microprocessors, for example, contain more than one million transistors on their chips. The smaller, denser chips can also provide speed benefits, because in high-speed devices, the length of time it takes a signal to travel a given distance can become a factor. The major fabricating steps for integrated circuits include film formation, impurity doping, photolithography, etching, and packaging. See microelectronics.

Bibliography

See M. S. Malone, The Microprocessor: A Biography (1995).

---

integrated circuit (IC)

 or microcircuit or chip or microchip

Assembly of microscopic electronic components (transistors, diodes, capacitors, and resistors) and their interconnections fabricated as a single unit on a wafer of semiconducting material, especially silicon. Early ICs of the late 1950s consisted of about 10 components on a chip 0.12 in. (3 mm) square. Very large-scale integration (VLSI) vastly increased circuit density, giving rise to the microprocessor. The first commercially successful IC chip (Intel, 1974) had 4,800 transistors; Intel's Pentium (1993) had 3.2 million, and more than a billion are now achievable.

---

integrated circuit

The formal name for the chip. In 1958, Texas Instruments inventor Jack Kilby demonstrated the first electronic circuit in which more than one transistor was fabricated on a single piece of semiconductor material. See chip.

The First Integrated Circuit

About a half inch wide, this archaic-looking collection of two transistors mounted on a bar of germanium was nonetheless the first integrated circuit. It was demonstrated by TI on September 12, 1958. (Image courtesy of Texas Instruments, Inc.)

A Few More Transistors

This integrated circuit from TI was made in the early 1960s. Notice how much more intricate it was than the first IC in the image above. (Image courtesy of The Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org)

---

integrated circuit

a very small electronic circuit consisting of an assembly of elements made from a chip of semiconducting material, such as crystalline silicon

---

(electronics)

integrated circuit - (IC, or "chip") A microelectronic semiconductor device consisting of many interconnected transistors and other components. ICs are constructed ("fabricated") on a small rectangle (a "die") cut from a Silicon (or for special applications, Sapphire) wafer. This is known as the "substrate". Different areas of the substrate are "doped" with other elements to make them either "p-type" or "n-type" and polysilicon or aluminium tracks are etched in one to three layers deposited over the surface. The die is then connected into a package using gold wires which are welded to "pads", usually found around the edge of the die. Integrated circuits can be classified into analogue, digital and hybrid (both analogue and digital on the same chip). Digital integrated circuits can contain anything from one to millions of logic gates - inverters, AND, OR, NAND and NOR gates, flip-flops, multiplexors etc. on 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. The first integrated circuits contained only a few transistors. Small Scale Integration (SSI) brought circuits containing transistors numbered in the tens. Later, Medium Scale Integration (MSI) contained hundreds of transistors. Further development lead to Large Scale Integration (LSI) (thousands), and VLSI (hundreds of thousands and beyond). In 1986 the first one megabyte RAM was introduced which contained more than one million transistors. LSI circuits began to be produced in large quantities around 1970 for computer main memories and pocket calculators. For the first time it became possible to fabricate a CPU or even an entire microprocesor on a single integrated circuit. The most extreme technique is wafer-scale integration which uses whole uncut wafers as components.