The invention of integrated circuit have led to the quick development we are experiencing in our modern century.
Smart electronics like smartphones which are foldable and touch screen smartwatches have been developed due to the invention of integrated circuits.
In old radios antennas are use for picking signals their antennas need to be adjusted to pick up radio signals, but now radio frequency ICs have put an end to it, radio signals can be picked up without antennas.
Bluetooth devices, WI-FI servers, radios, smartphones all use this radio frequency chip.
The idea of integrated circuit was brought by Geoffrey W.A dummer in year 1952.
Before the invention of ICs discrete components are wired to one another to form a discrete circuit which ends up in big size.
Discrete circuits are made of discrete components, discrete means materials that are seperate and can function on it own. Discrete circuits are made of capacitors, resistors, inductors, transistors and other components when a single component gets spoilt the whole circuit won't work, thus this have pushed engineers to invent the integrated circuit.
Jack kilby was the first develop a practical IC he created a miniature ceramic wafer each carrying a miniatured discrete component.
All this wafers are wired together to form an integrated circuit.
This IC was discarded because of it error and inefficiency.
Years later, on 12th of September 1958 jack kilby while working at Texas instruments, he concieved an idea of making a more suitable and efficient IC from germanium chip.
This invention won him a nobel price in year 2000.
Some years after jack kilby invented his IC, Robert Noyce developed his own integrated circuit from a silicon chip, it is more good and erase many practical problem that jack kilby IC had.
In circuits and schematic diagrams integrated circuits have no symbol for representation, they are just drawn in it real shape and indicated with the number of pins it have like the one shown below.
Schematic diagram of an IC.
Classifications of ICs.
There are many types of integrated circuits depending on shape and size. They are available as dual in-line packages, ceramic flat party , metal cans and can have 10 pins, 20 pins, 14 pins depending on the manufacturer
1. Monolithic integrated circuit.
Monolithic is originated from two greek words monos and lithos meaning single and stone respectively.
This type of ICs is made from a single solid block of silicon of which discrete components are mounted on it. Most of the integrated circuits in market are manufactured in this process, they are very cheap to buy and manufacture.
Monolithic integrated circuits can be manufactured in less time and many ICs can be manufactured identically.
Discrete components are mounted on a solid block of silicon or other semiconductor materials. The mounted component's connected terminals can't be seen with naked eyes or even a microscope. They are found applicable in amplifiers, TV sets, laptops, PCBs and portable electronics
Monolithic integrated circuit can only be used in low power circuits because they have low wattage. They can get burnt when powered high voltage more than their ratings.
Inductors can't be embedded into them
2. Hybrid or multiple chip ICs.
It just formed from combinations of many single chips into a single block. It has more wattage than a monolithic IC and can take up to 50W of power.
Hybrid ICs have a better performance than a monolithic IC but they are complex expensive to manufacture.
They contains active and passive components, the active components are diffused diodes and transistors, the passive components are diffused capacitors and resistors in a single chip, the inter-connection between individual chips is by wired process metallised pattern.
3. Thick film integrated circuit.
This type of integrated circuit is manufactured by printing conductive ink on a insulating base e.g plastic, ceramics and glass.
The ink are materials that has resistive, conductive, and dielectric properties
Separate chips are embedded in them and connect together by fine stainless steel wire mesh.
4. Thin film integrated circuit.
It is manufactured by deposition of a conductive material (film) on a ceramic, plastic or a glass base.
Inductors are embedded into them by making spiral form of conductive element in the IC, resistors are made by controlling the width and thickness of the film with different materials selected for their resistivity.
Thin film ICs are small in size and are thinner than other ICs, capacitors are embedded into it also by sandwiching a layer of insulating oxide into conductive film.
Integrated circuits are categorised depending on their size as listed below.
- Small scale integration (SSI). 3 to 30 gates/chip. They consists of few transistors more than 10 embedded into single chip.
- Medium scale integration (MSI). 30 to 300 gates/chip. They consists more than 100 transistors embedded in a chip
- Large scale integration (LSI). 300 to 3,000 gates/chip. It contains thousands of transistors, the first microprocessor, calculator chips and RAM of about 1KB have thousands of transistors. 4. Very large scale integration (VLSI). contains over 3,0000 gates/chip. They consists of hundred thousands and milions of transistors embedded in them.
Advantages and disadvantage of ICs.
1. Integrated circuits compresses big and complex circuits which consumes space into a finger nail size chip.
2. portable electronic devices like ear pods, ear peice, hearing aids and smartphones were developed because of the low power consumption and small size of ICs.
3. They minimize faults in circuits because discrete components soldered on PCBs can get faulty and this can lead to the entire faliure of the PCBs.
4. When they get faulty they can't be repaired, they need to be replaced instead.
5. Integrated circuits are soldered to boards with high level of accuracy.
Soldering IC terminals must be kept clean and soldered neatly otherwise it can result to short circuit which can cause heat build up and can get the IC burnt.
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Basic Electronics