A wafer on which thousands or millions of tiny resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors are manufactured is called an integrated circuit (IC). ICs are sometimes called chips, microchips, or microelectronic circuits.
ICs are the basic building blocks of all modern electronic devices. As the name suggests, it is an integrated system consisting of several miniaturized and interconnected components embedded in a thin substrate of semiconductor material (usually silicon crystals).
Features of IC
- Miniaturization
- High reliability
- High speed
- Low power consumption
- Increased functionality
- Ease of use
- Mass production
Symbol of IC
Generation of ICs
- SSI
- MSI
- LSI
- VLSI
- ULSI
Small Scale Integration (SSI)
SSI or Small-scale integration technology used transistors ranging from 1 to 10 and logic gates from 1 to 12.
Medium Scale Integration (MSI)
In MSI or Medium scale integration technology, transistors ranged from 10 to 500 and 13 to 99 logic gates were used.
Large Scale Integration (LSI)
LSI or Large-scale integration technology uses transistors in the range of 500 to 20,000 and logic gates in the range of 100 to 9,999.
Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)
VLSI or Very large scale integration technology used 20,000 to 1,000,000 camcorders and 10,000 to 99,999 logic gates.
Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI)
ULSI or Ultra Large Scale Integration technology used 1,000,000 transistors and logic gates
Types of Integrated Circuits (ICs)
There are two main types of integrated circuits which are given:
- Linear or Analog IC
- Digital IC
Linear or Analog IC
An analog or linear IC has a continuously variable output depending on the input signal level, the output signal level being a linear function of the input signal level.
Linear or analog ICs are most commonly used as audio frequency and high-frequency amplifiers. Op amps, voltage regulators, comparators, and timers are examples of linear or analog ICs.
Digital ICs
Digital ICs operate on binary digital signals that are always in one of two possible states. That is logic 0 and logic 1. Digital ICs include gates, counters, memories, and microprocessors.
Working of IC
Integrated circuits function as amplifiers, timers, microprocessors, oscillators, and computer memory. ICs are made of tiny silicon wafers containing thousands of components such as resistors, transistors, and capacitors. These are small components that can perform various calculations to store data using analog or digital technology.
Various integrated circuits such as analog and linear functions with fixed values. This means that the electronic components on the linear IC can take all possible values and output different values. Therefore, linear IC is used because the o/p value is a linear function of the input. Linear ICs are commonly used for audio and RF amplification.
Applications of IC
- Audio Amplifiers
- Memory Devices
- Logic Devices
- Radio Frequency
- Encoders and Decoders
- Radar