Compared with discrete transistors, integrated circuits have two main advantages: cost and performance. The cost is low because the chip prints all the components as a unit by photolithography technology, instead of making only one transistor at a time.
The high performance is due to the fast switching of components, and because the components are small and close to each other, less energy is consumed. In 2006, the chip area was from a few square millimeters to 350 mm? , per mm? It can reach one million transistors.
The first prototype of the integrated circuit was completed by jack kilby in 1958, including a bipolar transistor, three resistors and a capacitor.
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The most advanced integrated circuit is the core of microprocessor or multi-core processor, which can control everything from computer to mobile phone to digital microwave oven. Although the cost of designing and developing a complex integrated circuit is very high, when it is distributed to millions of products, the cost of each integrated circuit is the smallest. The performance of integrated circuits is very high, because small size brings short paths, which makes low-power logic circuits applicable to fast switching speed.
Over the years, integrated circuits have been developing to smaller sizes, so that each chip can package more circuits. This increases the capacity per unit area, reduces the cost and increases the functions. According to Moore's Law, the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every 1.5 years.
In short, with the shrinking of external dimensions, almost all indicators have been improved, unit cost and switching power consumption have been reduced, and the speed has been improved. However, there are also problems in IC integrated with nano-scale equipment, mainly leakage current. Therefore, the increase of speed and power consumption of end users is very obvious, and manufacturers are faced with the severe challenge of using better geometry.
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