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 integrated circuit (IC), also called microelectronic circuit, microchip, or chip, an assembly of electronic components, fabricated as a single unit, in which miniaturized active devices (e.g., transistors and diodes) and passive devices (e.g., capacitors and resistors) and their interconnections are built up on a thin substrate of semiconductor material (typically silicon). The resulting circuit is thus a small monolithic “chip,” which may be as small as a few square centimetres or only a few square millimetres. The individual circuit components are generally microscopic in size.

Integrated circuits have their origin in the invention of the transistor in 1947 by William B. Shockley and his team at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company’s Bell Laboratories. Shockley’s team (including John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain) found that, under the right circumstances, electrons would form a barrier at the surface of certain crystals, and they learned to control the flow of electricity through the crystal by manipulating this barrier. Controlling electron flow through a crystal allowed the team to create a device that could perform certain electrical operations, such as signal amplification, that were previously done by vacuum tubes. They named this device a transistor, from a combination of the words transfer and resistor. The study of methods of creating electronic devices using solid materials became known as solid-state electronics. Solid-state devices proved to be much sturdier, easier to work with, more reliable, much smaller, and less expensive than vacuum tubes. Using the same principles and materials, engineers soon learned to create other electrical components, such as resistors and capacitors. Now that electrical devices could be made so small, the largest part of a circuit was the awkward wiring between the devices.

Basic IC types

Analog versus digital circuits

Analog, or linear, circuits typically use only a few components and are thus some of the simplest types of ICs. Generally, analog circuits are connected to devices that collect signals from the environment or send signals back to the environment. For example, a microphone converts fluctuating vocal sounds into an electrical signal of varying voltage. An analog circuit then modifies the signal in some useful way—such as amplifying it or filtering it of undesirable noise. Such a signal might then be fed back to a loudspeaker, which would reproduce the tones originally picked up by the microphone. Another typical use for an analog circuit is to control some device in response to continual changes in the environment. For example, a temperature sensor sends a varying signal to a thermostat, which can be programmed to turn an air conditioner, heater, or oven on and off once the signal has reached a certain value.

A digital circuit, on the other hand, is designed to accept only voltages of specific given values. A circuit that uses only two states is known as a binary circuit. Circuit design with binary quantities, “on” and “off” representing 1 and 0 (i.e., true and false), uses the logic of Boolean algebra. (Arithmetic is also performed in the binary number system employing Boolean algebra.) These basic elements are combined in the design of ICs for digital computers and associated devices to perform the desired functions.

Microprocessor circuits

Microprocessors are the most-complicated ICs. They are composed of billions of transistors that have been configured as thousands of individual digital circuits, each of which performs some specific logic function. A microprocessor is built entirely of these logic circuits synchronized to each other. Microprocessors typically contain the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer.

Just like a marching band, the circuits perform their logic function only on direction by the bandmaster. The bandmaster in a microprocessor, so to speak, is called the clock. The clock is a signal that quickly alternates between two logic states. Every time the clock changes state, every logic circuit in the microprocessor does something. Calculations can be made very quickly, depending on the speed (clock frequency) of the microprocessor.

Microprocessors contain some circuits, known as registers, that store information. Registers are predetermined memory locations. Each processor has many different types of registers. Permanent registers are used to store the preprogrammed instructions required for various operations (such as addition and multiplication). Temporary registers store numbers that are to be operated on and also the result. Other examples of registers include the program counter (also called the instruction pointer), which contains the address in memory of the next instruction; the stack pointer (also called the stack register), which contains the address of the last instruction put into an area of memory called the stack; and the memory address register, which contains the address of where the data to be worked on is located or where the data that has been processed will be stored.

Microprocessors can perform billions of operations per second on data. In addition to computers, microprocessors are common in video game systems, televisions, cameras, and automobiles.

Memory circuits

Microprocessors typically have to store more data than can be held in a few registers. This additional information is relocated to special memory circuits. Memory is composed of dense arrays of parallel circuits that use their voltage states to store information. Memory also stores the temporary sequence of instructions, or program, for the microprocessor.

Manufacturers continually strive to reduce the size of memory circuits—to increase capability without increasing space. In addition, smaller components typically use less power, operate more efficiently, and cost less to manufacture.