What does Integrated Circuit (IC) mean?

Integrated Circuits

What is an Integrated Circuit (IC)?

An integrated circuit (IC) is basically s small-sized semiconductor-based electronic device that mostly consists of capacitors, resistors and transistors and they are essentially the building blocks of most of the electronic equipment and devices out there. It is also referred to as microchip or just a chip.

The IC is brought to life y a manufacturer primarily to embed as many transistors as it is possible on one semiconductor chip. By 2012, the numbers were at a high rising up to billions. Their design assembly suggests that these devices have undergone numerous developments and advancements including:

• The Small Scale Integration (SSI) containing tens to hundreds of transistors per device.
  
• The Medium Scale Integration (MSI) with each chip containing hundreds to thousands of transistors.
  
• The Large Scale Integration (LSI) with every chip containing thousands to hundred thousand transistors.
  
• The Large Scale Integration (VLSI) with each chip containing up to 1 million transistors.
  
• The Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI), which represents the modern IC containing millions and billions of transistors.
  

ICs can be classified into analogue, digital and a combination of both with the common example being the digital circuitry, logical gates and the computer processor that contains fabricated transistors running into billions in number.