IC (Integrated circuit)

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IC (Integrated circuit)

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Definition

An integrated circuit (IC), often also referred to as a solid-state circuit, a chip or a microchip, refers to an electronic circuit manufactured using semiconductor technology.

In electronics, there are many circuits that occur again and again. To avoid having to rebuild these complex circuits each time, they are integrated on a small semiconductor board. The semiconductor board contains many electronic components such as transistors, capacitors and resistors, which together form the circuit and are encapsulated in a housing for better protection.

ICs are considered independent electronic components, and allow to create low-cost, space-saving and reliable electronic systems.

From the density of the transistors (integration density) and size of the chip, the degree of integration of an IC results.

Name	Transistor count	Size	Application
Small Scale Integration (SSI)	< 10	< 3 mm²	digital gates (logic elements)
Medium Scale Integration (MSI)	< 500	< 8 mm²	analog-digital combined circuits
Large Scale Integration (LSI)	< 20.000	< 20 mm²	analog-digital combined circuits, memories, microprocessors
Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)	< 1.000.000	< 30 mm²	memories, microprocessors
Ultralarge Scale Integration (ULSI)	> 1.000.000	> 30 mm²

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References

1. Wikipedia: Integrated circuit

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