{"id":975,"date":"2024-07-03T21:39:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T04:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/eagle\/blog\/?p=975"},"modified":"2025-02-10T12:41:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T20:41:53","slug":"integrated-circuit-moores-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/integrated-circuit-moores-law\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Integrated Circuit Works: Everything You Need to Know (2024 Update)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s that little mastermind behind all of our electronics, plotting its way to take over the world. No, we\u2019re not talking about <\/span>Pinky and the Brain<\/span><\/a> here, but the integrated circuit, or IC! These little black chips are filled with much mystery, but what kind of powers do they hold?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The main ingredient of today\u2019s electronics rests on the hidden power of the integrated circuit, and you\u2019ll likely be using them in your own projects. So here\u2019s everything you need to know, and Moore, on how an IC works. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What is an integrated circuit?<\/h2>\n\n\n

So, what exactly is an integrated circuit? In its most basic form, an integrated circuit is simply a collection of teeny tiny electronic components organized on a piece of silicon. Compared to their larger brothers and sisters, the components found on an IC can be nearly microscopic in size. Each IC contains a unique collection of diodes, transistors, microprocessors, capacitors, etc\u2026 all found on something smaller than a dime<\/span>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"integrated-circuit\"
All of your standard, common components have been miniaturized to fit inside this integrated circuit.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the benefit of putting all of these components together into one integrated circuit? There are many! Here are just a few:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

1. Space Savers<\/h4>\n\n\n

Instead of requiring an entire printed circuit board filled with a ton of transistors, diodes, and other parts, you can get all of that advanced functionality in a fraction of the size. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

2. Greater <\/strong>Complexity<\/h4>\n\n\n

The level of complexity found in such a small package has allowed us to build some pretty amazing things. Like self-landing rockets and satellites with built-in navigation. Imagine trying to make those things with billions of through-hole components! <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

3. Common Goals<\/h4>\n\n\n

By creating a tiny integrated circuit with an exact purpose, you can put a bunch of these together to achieve a common goal. Need a tracking device for your car? One IC can provide GPS, another can send messages, and a final microcontroller IC can control all the data going back and forth.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, you also have the benefit of taking all of those separate yet connected parts found on a conventional circuit and putting them all together in one place! That gives you the advanced functionality you need in a pre-made circuit without having to build it yourself<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The integrated circuit truly is the brains behind all of today\u2019s electronic devices, and you\u2019ll be hard-pressed<\/span> to not find them everywhere, like in radars, televisions, video processing, missiles, and yes, even juice makers! The list is endless. Just take a quick scan of all the electronic devices in your home, and you\u2019re bound to find an IC inside nearly all of them. But from where did they come?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

The beginnings of the integrated circuit<\/h2>\n\n\n

Before the integrated circuit rolled around, vacuum tubes were the kings of the day, being used to amplify electrical signals and power computers the size of an entire room! But these monolithic vacuum tubes broke down regularly and pumped out a ton of heat in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in 1947, three American physicists one-upped the vacuum tube by making the first transistor<\/a>. These things were a fraction of the size of a vacuum tube, used way less power, and didn\u2019t break nearly as much. And if you combine a bunch of these transistors together? You get an integrated circuit!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"First-Transistor\"
The first transistor was invented in 1947 by three American physicists to replace the cumbersome vacuum tube.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

The first integrated circuit<\/h3>\n\n\n

The first integrated circuit was developed by two gentlemen \u2014 Jack Kilby and <\/span>Robert Noyce<\/span><\/a>. Kilby was working at <\/span>Texas Instruments<\/span><\/a> at the time, where he had an idea to construct all of the parts of an electronic circuit on a single chip. He soon put his idea into reality, and built the world\u2019s <\/span>first integrated circuit<\/span><\/a> on September 12, 1958, on a slab of germanium. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first integrated circuit using germanium was created by Jack Kilby in 1958.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over at <\/span>Fairchild Semiconductor<\/span><\/a>, Robert Noyce was also working away. Using a new chemical technique known as the <\/span>planar process<\/span><\/a>, Noyce went on to create another variation of the integration in 1959; this time put to work on silicon, which is still used today!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"robert-noyce-jack-kilby\"
Robert Noyce (left) and Jack Kilby (right) both created their own versions of the first integrated circuit around the same time. (Image source<\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, both companies rushed to secure a patent on their inventions, and on April 25, 1961, the patent office <\/span>awarded the first integrated circuit patent to Robert Noyce<\/span><\/a>. Today, both Kilby and Noyce are credited with inventing the integrated circuit. Kilby later received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his contribution to the future of electronics. The world would soon move past the simple one-transistor integrated circuit from Noyce and Kilby, and an entire manufacturing process would soon be born to pump out these little black chips to the world.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

How an IC Is Made<\/h2>\n\n\n

At the heart of an integrated circuit are layers of silicon wafers (semiconductors<\/a>) and copper that come together to create the electronic components that we use today in our breadboards – <\/span>transistors<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>resistors<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>diodes<\/span><\/a>, etc. in a miniaturized form. When you organize all of these parts together in an integrated circuit, then you have created a die. But how exactly is this die made? That\u2019s where doping comes in<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

Semiconductors & doping<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n

Semiconductors are not just conductors or insulators; they\u2019re both! While many people thought that conductors and insulators were evenly split categories, this truth gets a little fuzzy the farther you journey into the periodic table. There are several materials, including silicon and germanium, that can act as both insulators and conductors depending on what kind of impurities are added to them. This process of adding impurities is called doping. Here\u2019s how it works in a nutshell:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n