Linear IC

To explain a linear IC, it is best to delve into a linear circuit first. It is one in which the values of the

electronic components such as the resistance, capacitance, inductance or gain does not change with the

level of voltage or current in the circuit. Linear circuits can be analysed with powerful mathematical

frequency domain techniques because they obey the superposition principle. Linear circuits and systems

belong to a separate category within electronic manufacturing.

Linear IC

The most commonly know linear IC is the op amp or operational amplifier, which comprise of diodes,

resistors and transistors in an analogue circuit. Linear circuit elements like resistor’s, capacitor’s or

inductor’s behaviour can be specified by a single number like resistance, capacitance or inductance. Non-

linear elements’ behaviour on the other hand is specified by the device’s detailed transfer function, so more

information is needed to specify non-linear circuits’ characteristics.

In electronics, an integrated circuit (also known as IC, microcircuit, microchip, silicon chip, or chip) is a

miniaturized electronic circuit(consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) that has

been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate ofsemiconductor material. Integrated circuits are used in almost

all electronic equipment in use today and have revolutionized the world of electronics.
A hybrid integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit constructed of individual semiconductor devices, as well

as passive components, bonded to a substrate or circuit board.

Introduction

Synthetic detail of an integrated circuit through four layers of planarized copper interconnect, down to the polysilicon (pink), wells (greyish),

and substrate (green).

Integrated circuits were made possible by experimental discoveries which showed that semiconductor devices could

perform the functions of vacuum tubes, and by mid-20th-century technology advancements in semiconductor device

fabrication. The integration of large numbers of tiny transistorsinto a small chip was an enormous improvement over

the manual assembly of circuits using electronic components. The integrated circuit's mass production capability,

reliability, and building-block approach to circuit design ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of

designs using discrete transistors.

There are two main advantages of ICs over discrete circuits: cost and performance. Cost is low because the chips,

with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography and not constructed one transistor at a time.

Furthermore, much less material is used to construct a circuit as a packaged IC die than as a discrete circuit.

Performance is high since the components switch quickly and consume little power (compared to their discrete

counterparts) because the components are small and close together. As of 2006, chip areas range from a few square

millimeters to around 350 mm2, with up to 1 million transistors per mm2.

Invention
Jack Kilby's original integrated circuit

The idea of an integrated circuit was conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the

British Ministry of Defence,Geoffrey W.A. Dummer (1909-2002), who published it at the Symposium on Progress in

Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 1952.[1] He gave many symposia publicly to propagate

his ideas. Dummer unsuccessfully attempted to build such a circuit in 1956.

The integrated circuit can be credited as being invented by both Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments[2] and Robert

Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor [3]working independently of each other. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning

the integrated circuit in July 1958 and successfully demonstrated the first working integrated circuit on September 12,

1958.[2] In his patent application of February 6, 1959, Kilby described his new device as “a body of semiconductor
material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated.” [4]

Kilby won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his part of the invention of the integrated circuit.[5] Robert Noyce also

came up with his own idea of integrated circuit, half a year later than Kilby. Noyce's chip had solved many practical

problems that the microchip developed by Kilby had not. Noyce's chip, made at Fairchild, was made of silicon,

whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium.

Early developments of the integrated circuit go back to 1949, when the German engineer Werner Jacobi (Siemens

AG) filed a patent for an integrated-circuit-like semiconductor amplifying device [6] showing five transistors on a

common substrate arranged in a 2-stage amplifier arrangement. Jacobi discloses small and cheap hearing aids as

typical industrial applications of his patent. A commercial use of his patent has not been reported.

A precursor idea to the IC was to create small ceramic squares (wafers), each one containing a single miniaturized

component. Components could then be integrated and wired into a bidimensional or tridimensional compact grid. This

idea, which looked very promising in 1957, was proposed to the US Army by Jack Kilby, and led to the short-lived

Micromodule Program (similar to 1951's Project Tinkertoy).[7] However, as the project was gaining momentum, Kilby

came up with a new, revolutionary design: the IC.

The aforementioned Noyce credited Kurt Lehovec of Sprague Electric for the principle of p-n junction

isolation caused by the action of a biased p-n junction (the diode) as a key concept behind the IC.[8]

See: Other variations of vacuum tubes for precursor concepts such as the Loewe 3NF.

The integrated circuit from an Intel8742, an 8-bit microcontroller that includes a CPU running at 12 MHz, 128 bytes of RAM, 2048 bytes

of EPROM, and I/O in the same chip.

Among the most advanced integrated circuits are the microprocessors or "cores", which control everything

from computers to cellular phones to digital microwave ovens. Digital memory chips and ASICs are examples of other

families of integrated circuits that are important to the moderninformation society. While the cost of designing and

developing a complex integrated circuit is quite high, when spread across typically millions of production units the

individual IC cost is minimized. The performance of ICs is high because the small size allows short traces which in

turn allows low power logic (such as CMOS) to be used at fast switching speeds.

ICs have consistently migrated to smaller feature sizes over the years, allowing more circuitry to be packed on each

chip. This increased capacity per unit area can be used to decrease cost and/or increase functionality—see Moore's

law which, in its modern interpretation, states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every two

years. In general, as the feature size shrinks, almost everything improves—the cost per unit and the switching power

consumption go down, and the speed goes up. However, ICs with nanometer-scale devices are not without their

problems, principal among which is leakage current (see subthreshold leakage for a discussion of this), although

these problems are not insurmountable and will likely be solved or at least ameliorated by the introduction of high-k

dielectrics. Since these speed and power consumption gains are apparent to the end user, there is fierce competition

among the manufacturers to use finer geometries. This process, and the expected progress over the next few years,

is well described by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS).

[edit]Popularity of ICs

Only a half century after their development was initiated, integrated circuits have become

ubiquitous. Computers, cellular phones, and other digital appliances are now inextricable parts of the structure of

modern societies. That is, modern computing, communications, manufacturing and transport systems, including

the Internet, all depend on the existence of integrated circuits.