| Bibliographic Entry | Result (w/surrounding text) |
Standardized Result |
|---|---|---|
| Millman, Jacob Ph.D & Halkias, Christos C. Ph.D. Integrated Electronics analog digital circuits and systems. Ed. Frederick Emmons Terman. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc,1972: 197. | "We demonstrate in this chapter that a reasonable area under which a component (say, a transistor) is fabricated is 50 mils2. Hence each chip (each integrated circuit) contains 50 separate components, and there are 50 x 400=20,000 components/in.² on each wafer." | 3000/cm2 (1972) |
| "Integrated Circuit". Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2004. 1993-2003. | "In large-scale integration (LSI), as many as 5000 circuit elements, such as resistors and transistors, are combined in a square of silicon measuring about1.3 cm (.5 in) on a side." | 3000/cm2 (2003) |
| Kang, Sung-Mo & Leblebici, Yusuf. CMOS Integrated Circuits Analysis and Design. 3rd. ed. McGraw-Hill Professional 2002: 2. | "State-of-the-art ULSI chips, such as DEC Alpha or Intel Pentium, contain 10 to 100 million transistors." | 107 ~ 108/cm2 (2002) |
| "Integrated Circuits".The illustrated Science and Invention Encyclopedia. Volume 10. New York: H.S. Stuttman. 1974, 1976, 1977. 1273. | "Typically the chip may be .005 inch (1.27 mm) square by .01 inch (.025 mm) thick, though modern LSI (large scale integrated) devices may measure up to 0.25 inch (6.4 mm) square and may contain the equivalent of many thousands of individual transistors." | 2000/cm2 (1977) |
| Integrated Circuit. Wikipedia. 28 May 2007. | "As of 2006, chip areas range from a few square mm to around 350 mm2, with up to 1 million transistors per mm2." | 108/cm2 (2007) |
An integrated circuit (IC) is a minuscule electronic circuit that consists of active and passive components as well as interconnections. These components include transistors, diodes, capacitors and resistors. ICs are made out of crystalline silicon wafers. Several hundred identical integrated circuits are made on a thin wafer that is a couple centimeters wide, and this wafer is then sliced into many chips. In large-scale integration (LSI), as many as 5000 semiconductors such as resistors and transistors are combined in a square of silicon 1.3 centimeters on each side. The interconnections of an integrated circuit are made up of semiconductor films and are insulated from the other parts of the circuit by layers of dielectric material. Examples of integrated circuits include DEC Alpha and the Intel Pentium chips.
The IC is based mainly on the transistor. The transistor, a semiconductor device, was developed as an alternative to the old vacuum tube. Since the transistor could be made much smaller, it was much more convenient to use. As a result, the transistor became the main amplifying device in almost all electronic equipment.
ICs are significant not only because they are tiny but also because they are reliable and relatively cheap. In fact, because of these characteristics, integrated circuits have made possible the development of the calculator, the personal computer, the digital watch, and the video game console. They have also been used to improve older technology that was developed before it such as the television and the radio.
In the early 1960s, Moore's law was proposed which predicated that the number of transistors in an IC doubles every two years. Thus, it was to no surprise that after 1970, the number of transistors in an IC started to increase exponentially. In fact, in 2006, chips were created that contained up to 100 million transistors per square centimeter.
Gennadiy Rozentsvayg -- 2007