Chips
What is a chip in electronics?
Chips are a generic term for semiconductor component products in the electronics field.
Integrated circuit abbreviated as IC; or microcircuit, microchip, wafer/chip in electronics is a way of miniaturizing circuits (mainly semiconductor devices, but also passive components, etc.) and is often manufactured on the surface of semiconductor wafers.
Chips introduction
Chips, where the circuitry is manufactured on the surface of a semiconductor chip, are also known as thin-film integrated circuits.
Another type of thick-film integrated circuit (hybrid integrated circuit) is a miniaturized circuit consisting of individual semiconductor devices and passive components integrated into a substrate or circuit board.
After the invention and mass production of the transistor, various solid-state semiconductor components such as diodes and transistors were used in large numbers, replacing the function and role of the vacuum tube in the circuit.
By the mid to late 20th century advances in semiconductor manufacturing technology made integrated circuits possible. In contrast to the manual assembly of circuits using individual discrete electronic components, integrated circuits allowed for the integration of a large number of micro-transistors into a small chip, which was a huge advance.
The scale productivity, reliability, and modular approach to circuit design of integrated circuits ensure the rapid adoption of standardized integrated circuits instead of designing with discrete transistors.
Integrated circuits have two main advantages over discrete transistors: cost and performance.
The low cost is due to the fact that the chip takes all the components and prints them as a unit by photolithography, rather than making only one transistor at a time.
The high performance is due to the components switching quickly and consuming less energy because the components are small and close to each other. 2006 saw chip areas ranging from a few square millimeters to 350 mm² and up to a million transistors per mm².
The first prototype integrated circuit was completed by Jack Kilby in 1958 and consisted of a bipolar transistor, three resistors, and a capacitor.
Chips classification
1. Depending on the number of microelectronic devices integrated on integrated circuit chips can be divided into the following categories.
Small Scale Integrated Circuits (SSI) have less than 10 logic gates or 100 transistors.
Medium Scale Integration (MSI) has 11 to 100 logic gates or 101 to 1k transistors.
Large Scale Integration (LSI) 101 to 1k logic gates or 1,001 to 10k transistors.
Very large scale integration (VLSI) 1,001~10k logic gates or 10,001~100k transistors.
Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI) 10,001~1M logic gates or 100,001~10M transistors.
Giga Scale Integration (GLSI) 1,000,001 or more logic gates or 10,000,001 or more transistors.
2. Classification according to the functional structure of the chips.
Integrated circuits can be divided into two categories according to their function and structure: analog integrated circuits and digital integrated circuits and mixed-signal integrated circuits (analog and digital on a single chip).
Digital integrated circuits can contain anything from thousands to millions of logic gates, flip-flops, multi-taskers, and other circuits on a few square millimeters.
The small size of these circuits allows for higher speed, lower power consumption, and reduced manufacturing costs compared to board-level integration.
These digital ICs, represented by microprocessors, digital signal processors, and microcontrollers, work in binary, processing 1 and 0 signals.
Analogue ICs have, for example, sensors, power control circuits, and op-amps, which process analog signals. The functions of amplification, filtering, demodulation, mixing, etc. are completed.
By using expertly designed, well-characterized analog integrated circuits, the circuit designer is relieved of the burden of having to design everything from the basics, one transistor at a time.
Integrated circuits can integrate analog and digital circuits on a single chip to make devices such as analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters.
Such circuits offer smaller sizes and lower costs but must be used for small designs with conflicting signals.
3. Classification by the chips manufacturing process.
Integrated circuits according to the production process can be divided into monolithic integrated circuits and hybrid integrated circuits, hybrid integrated circuits are divided into thick film integrated circuits and thin-film integrated circuits.
4. According to the different types of chips conductivity classification.
Integrated circuits according to the type of conductivity can be divided into bipolar integrated circuits and monopolar integrated circuits.
The bipolar integrated circuit production process is complex, power consumption is larger, the representative integrated circuits are TTL, ECL, HTL, LST-TL, STTL, and other types.
Unipolar integrated circuits are simple to produce, power consumption is also lower, easy to make large-scale integrated circuits, the representative integrated circuits are CMOS, NMOS, PMOS, and other types.
5. Classification by chips usage.
Integrated circuits by use can be divided into integrated circuits for televisions.
Audio IC, video disc player IC, video recorder IC, computer (microcomputer) IC, electronic piano IC, communication IC, camera IC, remote control IC, language IC, alarm IC and a variety of special IC.
Chip naming
The naming convention for chips is: letter + number + letter
The letter in front is the abbreviation of the chip manufacturer or a chip series. For example, most of the ones starting with MC are Motorola’s, and most of the ones starting with MAX are Maxis.
The number in the middle is the functional model. Like MC7805 and LM7805, from the 7805 you can see that their function is to output 5V, only the manufacturer is different.
The letters at the back are mostly package information, and you have to look at the information provided by the manufacturer to know exactly what package the letters represent.
A complete IC model number must generally contain at least the following four parts:
Prefix (first label): many of these can be inferred to be the product of the company.
The device name: this generally infers the function of the product (the memory can tell its capacity).
Temperature class: distinguishes between commercial-grade, industrial-grade, military-grade, etc.
Generally, C indicates civil grade, I indicates industrial grade, E indicates extended industrial grade, A indicates aerospace grade and M indicates military grade.
Package: indicates the package and the number of pins of the product, some IC models also have other contents:
Rate: such as memory, MCU, DSP, FPGA, and other products have a rate difference, such as -5, -6 and other numbers indicate.
Process structure: For example, there are two kinds of general-purpose digital ICs, COMS, and TL, which are often indicated by the letters C and T.
Environmental protection: Generally there is a letter at the end of the model number to indicate whether it is environmentally friendly, such as z, R, +, etc.
Packaging: shows the type of packaging the material is shipped in, such as a tube, T/R, rail, tray, etc.
Version number: shows the number of times the product has been modified, usually with M as the first version.
IC naming, package general knowledge, and naming rules:
IC chips Temperature range
C=0°C to 60°C (commercial grade)
I=-20°C to 85°C (industrial grade)
E=-40°C to 85°C (extended industrial grade)
A=-40°C to 82°C (aerospace grade)
M=-55°C to 125°C (military grade)
IC Chips Package type
A-SSOP
B-CERQUAD
C-TO-200, TQFP
D-Ceramic copper top
E-QSOP
F-Ceramic SOP
H-SBGAJ-Ceramic DIP
K-TO-3
L-LCC, M-MQFP
N-Narrow DIP; N-DIP
Q-PLCC
R-Narrow ceramic DIP (300 mils)
S-TO-52, T-TO5, TO-99, TO-100
U-TSSOP, UMAX, SOT
W – Widebody small form factor (300 mils)
X-SC-60 (3P, 5P, 6P)
Y-narrow copper tops
Z-TO-92, MCQUAID
D – bare film
PR – reinforced plastic
PR-Reinforced Plastisol
W-wafer
The number of pins
A-8
B-10; C-12, 192
C-12, 192
D-14
E-16
F-22, 256
G-4
H-4
I-28
J-2
K-5, 68
L-40
M-6, 48
N-18
O-42
P-20
Q-2, 100
R-3, 843
S-4, 80
T-6, 160
U-60
V-8 (round)
W-10 (round)
X-36
Y-8 (round); Z-10 (round)
Z-10 (round)
Note: The first letter of the four-letter suffix of the interface class is E, which means that the device has an antistatic function.
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