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Our world today is populated by increasingly powerful electronic devices, which all depend on integrated circuits as their fundamental building blocks. On April 11, 1984, Amstrad launched their first personal computer – the Amstrad CPC464. It became a bestselling product, with more than two million units sold in Europe. It brought computing to everyone, and owed its success to its attractive entry price, its simplicity to set up and start using, and an impressive specification. Amstrad founder Lord Sugar recalls how, during the launch, he showed the audience “two giant printed circuit boards (PCBs) covered with over 100 chips”. He continues, ”I then explained how the company was going to achieve a breakthrough in price by condensing the contents of these two PCBs into one tiny IC chip.” The integrated circuit design was in fact a gate array, which was custom built to Amstrad’s requirements. But the real point of this little story – before getting into any detail – is to introduce the concept of loading ever more electronics functionality onto increasingly diminutive building blocks known as integrated circuits, or simply as an IC, chip or IC chip. It also highlights the impact of doing so; not just on design engineers, but on society in general.   What is an integrated circuit? The semiconductor electronics technology that drives all the devices in our factories, cars, homes, and pockets dates from the early Fifties, when the first bipolar transistors entered production. Transistors were fundamental building blocks for logic circuits and computers because they could be used as binary devices that could be switched ON and OFF. They were equally useful in analog circuits such as audio equipment or data acquisition systems because of their amplification capabilities.   The first electronic designs comprised transistors and other discrete components, including diodes, capacitors, resistors, and inductors, assembled onto a PCB which could provide electrical connections between the components as well acting as a mounting base. Simple circuits could be interconnected to achieve larger and more complex functions – but as complexity increased, so did cost, size, temperature, reliability issues and manufacturing challenges. This problem, sometimes known as ‘the tyranny of numbers’, became a technological barrier preventing the full potential of semiconductor technology being applied to more powerful and functional yet smaller devices. To move forward, there had to be a better way of building and connecting transistors in large quantities. In the mid Fifties, when the world – and the military in particular – had realized the amazing potential of electronic computers, many scientists and engineers were looking for solutions that would not only work technically but could be produced profitably on a commercial scale. Against this background, the integrated circuit was the solution waiting to be invented. Although there is no consensus on who made the integrated circuit a practical reality, Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor are widely credited as two major developers of the technologies needed. Kilby was working at Texas Instruments when he developed the idea he called the monolithic principle: trying to build all the different parts of an electronic circuit on a silicon chip. On September 12, 1958, he hand-built the world's first, crude integrated circuit using a chip of germanium (a semiconducting element similar to silicon) and Texas Instruments applied for a patent on the idea the following year. Meanwhile, at another company called Fairchild Semiconductor (formed by a small group of associates who had originally worked for the transistor pioneer William Shockley) the equally brilliant Robert Noyce was experimenting with miniature circuits of his own. In 1959, he used a series of photographic and chemical techniques known as the planar process (which had just been developed by a colleague, Jean Hoerni) to produce the first, practical, integrated circuit, a method that Fairchild then tried to patent. There was considerable overlap between the two men's work and Texas Instruments and Fairchild battled in the courts for much of the 1960s over who had really developed the integrated circuit. Finally, in 1969, the companies agreed to share the idea .

Component procurement solution provider   Beijing Silk Road Enterprise Management Services Co.,LTD is a professional distributor of electronic components company, for consumer electronics, communication networks, industrial control, instrumentation, new energy, medical equipment and many other electronic industry to provide comprehensive electronic component procurement solutions.   Since its establishment, the company has continuously standardized the company management process, used professional electronic component management system for system management, and fully demonstrated the company's competitive advantage in international trade.   We adhere to the "integrity first, quality first" business philosophy, customer-centric, active service to customers, dedicated and responsible service spirit, positive and diligent work attitude, by the majority of customers fully affirmed and support, on the basis of customer development to obtain their own development, our goal is to become one of our customers the most satisfied suppliers.

When integrated circuits were invented in 1958, the world was no longer limited to buzzing and bulky vacuum tubes. An integrated circuit or a microchip refers to an assembly of electronic components embedded in thin silicon wafers. Furthermore, integrated circuits can be categorized as either analog or digital and can work as a timer, amplifier, counter, oscillator, or computer memory     Components of an Integrated Circuit and How They Work Unlike their predecessors, integrated circuits have the ability to compress more power into lesser space. Although the diodes, transistors, and microprocessors that make up an integrated circuit have specific functions, they seamlessly work together to perform multiple tasks and calculations. Diodes Diodes are electronic devices that control the flow of current in the circuit. Since each diode functions as a one-way switch for the current, it allows the current to flow in a specific path while restricting it from flowing in the opposite direction. Transistors Also known as the basic building blocks of modern electronics, these semiconductor devices regulate voltage flow or current by amplifying or switching electronic signals and power. Moreover, transistors open gateways that allow a specific amount of voltage into the circuit. Microprocessors A microprocessor is also referred to as a logic chip or a central processing unit (CPU). Since it incorporates the functions of a CPU on a single integrated circuit, the microprocessor is a critical component in an integrated circuit. Essentially, it acts as the brain or the engine of the entire computer system because it processes data while allowing the other parts to interact. As soon as the computer is switched on, the microprocessor goes into motion. This multipurpose and programmable device immediately performs logic and arithmetic operations that commonly include adding, subtracting, comparing two numbers, and transferring numbers.

Every electronic device that we use in our daily life is designed with electrical and electronics projects circuits. These electrical and electronics circuits can be designed using various technologies such as vacuum tubes technology, transistor technology, integrated circuit or IC technology, microprocessor technology and microcontroller technology. An Integrated Circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit constructed of individual semiconductor devices, as well as passive components, bonded to a substrate or circuit board. An Integrated circuit is made of devices manufactured by diffusion of trace elements into a single piece of semiconductor substrate.     The imperative part of IC The impact of integrated circuits on daily lives has been colossal. ICs have become the principal components of almost all electronic devices. ICs demonstrate features like low cost, high reliability, low power requirements, and high processing speeds compared to the vacuum tubes and transistors which preceded them. Modern ICs found its way in military applications, state of the art communication systems, and industrial applications due to its high reliability and compact size. Nowadays, an IC that has the size of a fingernail consists of more than a million transistors and other discrete components embedded into it. Thus an integrated circuit can also be called a microchip and is basically a collection of some discrete circuits on a small chip that is made of a semiconductor material like silicon. Integrated circuit microcomputers in today’s life are used as controllers in equipment such as machine tools, vehicle operating systems, and other applications where hydraulic, pneumatic, or mechanical controls were previously used. They can also be reprogrammed without having to redesign the control circuitry. Integrated circuit microcomputers are so inexpensive they are even found in children’s electronic toys. The use of discrete circuits was replaced by IC’s due to two factors. One is space consumption. A discrete circuitry consists of transistors, resistors, diodes, capacitors, and many other discrete devices. Each of them is soldered on to printed circuit boards (PCB) according to the need of circuitry. In the end PCB will occupy a large space. Another drawback is that the soldered components will show less reliability due to the use of many components. Both these factors urged engineers to invent microcircuits that have more reliability and consume less space. IC technology precisely reduced the size of circuits compared to the circuit size built using discrete components. Thus, cost of the circuits with the IC technology is less than the discrete or transistor technology. IC are at the heart of the rapid developments in mobile telecommunications, multimedia, the internet and numerous other applications. IC design is of major industrial importance, and this is even more true of analogue circuit design, an area in which the European electronics industry is leading the way. ICs are also designed to serve important industries such as aerospace, automotive, telecom, computers, and so on. One or more ICs, along with other components and connectors, are mounted on the printed circuit board (PCBs) and connected with thin strips of copper to cater an application. A very common use of a PCB is as the mother board of a computer. The entire process of designing, manufacturing, and testing an IC is quite complex. IC designers design and validate the ICs, while the IC manufacturers (often called the foundry) fabricate and test the ICs. This article explains the end-to-end process of IC designing, manufacturing, and testing.