3
FIT100
Integrated Circuits
Integrated
circuits (ICs) are the power source of the information revolution
•When
computers were made of discrete parts, wires of every transistor (3), capacitor
(2), resistor
(2), etc. had to be hand-connected
•Labor
intensive, expensive, error prone, unreliable, cumbersome, …
•Integrated
circuits solved that by 2 ideas
Integration --
circuits built as a unit from like parts
Photolithography --
printing process to make chips