microcircuit

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.

---

microcircuit

A miniaturized, electronic circuit, such as is found on an integrated circuit. See chip and MCM.

---

microcircuit

a miniature electronic circuit, esp one in which a number of permanently connected components are contained in one small chip of semiconducting material