What is Integrated Circuit in Computer? What does it actually mean? Let us discuss about the topic. The computers of the 1940s were the size of 3-4 double-decker buses. Again, they were fitted with 18,000 sounding electronic switches known as vacuum tubes. Today’s laptops are about 100 times smaller. Moreover, they take about 1,000 times less power than the computers of the day. The history of computers is so exciting and magical. How can such a huge thing be pocketed in just a few years? This strange discovery is possible only by Integrated Circuits or IC. Millions of chips, equivalent to a finger, stick to millions of electronic devices. So, let’s find out in detail how this is possible
What is Integrated Circuit in Computer?
When you turn on a television or a radio, you can see that all the components are arranged on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). When you look at this circuit board design, you will see that you are looking at it with a Google map from a city. There are many small registers on the circuit. Again, capacitors are attached, and a copper line connects all these components to each other. This looks like a metal road in a city.
It is very easy to make general electronics with a circuit board. But if you imagine building a complex electronic machine, such as a computer, you will easily be disappointed. Because you will need to install 6 electronic switches to create a system to save 1 byte of the computer. Suppose you want to build a computer on a circuit board that can only save this paragraph. Here, you still need to put a few thousand switches. Furthermore, the structure of a switch is almost equal to your thumb. So, imagine for a moment how much is the need of system improvement to build a computer that can process 1 megabyte of data?
The Solution
To solve this problem, scientists invented transistors, which behave the same way even when they are many times smaller than a vacuum tube, and can operate on a lot of energy. But, the biggest problem of the earlier days was linking these transistors in a complex circuit. Therefore, even after the invention of the transistor, it was necessary to tangle thousands of wires in computers.
However, with the advent of integrated circuits, all of this has changed completely. Furthermore, there is the creation of a complete circuit on a silicon surface by creating links between millions of components. Again, using this very clever idea, it has become possible to make every micro-electronics gadget today. There is the usage of Integrated circuits in everything from pocket calculators to computer chips, digital watches, and even rockets landed on the moon.
Engineers first put a dozen components into a chip, called Small-Scale Integration (SSI). This is what we know as Medium-Scale Integration (MSI). This involves thousands of components across a chip of the same size called Large-Scale Integration (LSI). Again, the creation of 10,000 devices with very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI), and the Ultra Large Scale is by linking millions of components to chips much smaller than before. Gordon Moore and his Intel company, the world’s largest chipmaker, noticed that. They are going to put double parts on the chip of the same size every few years, so they are being able to put more parts on their chips every year or so and make more powerful computer chips.
How are Integrated Circuits made?
All materials fall into two categories, one type of material which can conduct electricity by itself, called conductors. Furthermore, the other type of material cannot transport electricity, they are insulators or non-conductors. All metals are usually conductive, but non-metals such as plastic, wood, glass, etc. all are non-conductive. At first glance, the properties of any material will seem very clear, maybe someone is conductive and if not non-conductive, right? But practically the materials are not so simple.
Especially the materials in the middle of the periodic table, such as silicon and germanium. Here, it is possible to treat these insulators as conductors. Only some amount of impurities must be mixed in them, and this process is what we know as doping. If you add silicone to the silicon, it means you add more electrons than usual capability and add the ability to transport electricity. Doping of Silicon takes place in this way. This is what N-Type is.
But if boron is added to it instead of the resin and some electrons are taken from the silicon, it will act as a negative charge. This type of silicone is called P-Type. By connecting P-type and N-type silicon together, a junction is formed and the electrons begin to behave in a fun way. This is how we make electronic semiconductor dependent components such as diodes, transistors, and memories.
Inside a Chip
At the beginning of making the integrated circuit, we take a huge silicon crystal. This is like a tube to draw, but it is not hollow. This silicone that looks like a tube is spun very thin, so that each spindle contains a disc-like drawing, much like a CD. Again, there is a drawing of many rectangular spots on this disk. Moreover, as a result of drawing spots, there is the creation of millions of different areas in it. Furthermore, there is the conversion of these areas to P-type or N-type.
The Process of making IC
In fact, the process of making an integrated circuit is not as easy as you understood it to be, because there can be millions of parts in a place smaller than your finger. Think again, you are working on something that is microscopic or non-microscopic. After the making of chips, testing of each chip takes place by a computer. Furthermore, if any chip does not work, rejection takes place. Moreover, the usage of the chips that work properly takes place on computers or any electronic device.
Not without thanking its inventors for creating integrated circuits. Today its usage is in millions of computer machines, cellphones, and other electronics. Without an integrated circuit, the size of a computer would never have been so small and fast. Thanks also to Apple, Intel, IBM, and Microsoft. Because they have improved the design of single-chip computers and made them affordable for home use.
So for all the knowledge hungry readers out there, this article will surely answer all your questions regarding, what is integrated circuit in computer?
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