An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of miniaturized transistors and other electronic components are integrated together on the chip. This results in circuits that are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, and less expensive than those constructed of discrete components, allowing a large transistor count. The IC's mass production capability, reliability, and building-block approach to integrated circuit design have ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of designs using discrete transistors. ICs are now used in virtually all electronic equipment and have revolutionized the world of electronics. Computers, mobile phones and other home appliances are now inextricable parts of the structure of modern societies, made possible by the small size and low cost of ICs such as modern computer processors and microcontrollers.
Very-large-scale integration was made practical by technological advancements in semiconductor device fabrication. Since their origins in the 1960s, the size, speed, and capacity of chips have progressed enormously, driven by technical advances that fit more and more transistors on chips of the same size – a modern chip may have many billions of transistors in an area the size of a human fingernail. These advances, roughly following Moore's law, make the computer chips of today possess millions of times the capacity and thousands of times the speed of the computer chips of the early 1970s.
ICs have three main advantages over discrete circuits: size, cost and performance. The size and cost is low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography rather than being constructed one transistor at a time. Furthermore, packaged ICs use much less material than discrete circuits. Performance is high because the IC's components switch quickly and consume comparatively little power because of their small size and proximity.
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The student will learn process techniques and applications of modern micro- and nanofabrication, as practiced in a clean room, with a focus on silicon, but also multi-material microsystems and flexibl
Le but de ce cours est d'apprendre à réaliser de manière rigoureuse et critique des analyses par éléments finis de problèmes concrets en mécanique des solides à l'aide d'un logiciel CAE moderne.
This course provides the stepping stone to becoming an advanced A/MS IC designer. It emphasizes conceptual learning spanning from implementation to structure/architecture. It expands basic concepts (e
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal.
Computer memory stores information, such as data and programs for immediate use in the computer. The term memory is often synonymous with the term primary storage or main memory. An archaic synonym for memory is store. Computer memory operates at a high speed compared to storage which is slower but less expensive and higher in capacity. Besides storing opened programs, computer memory serves as disk cache and write buffer to improve both reading and writing performance.
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). The IC is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations.
Explores intermodulation effects in two-tone input signals, demonstrating nonlinearity impact on signal quality and discussing different types of LNAs.
Introduces Parallel Prefix Adders, a systematic approach to designing optimized adder architectures with various types like RCA, Sklansky, Brent Kung, Kogge Stone, and CIA.
Modern integrated circuits are tiny yet incredibly complex technological artifacts, composed of millions and billions of individual structures working in unison.Managing their complexity and facilitating their design drove part of the co-evolution of moder ...
EPFL2024
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A modular multiple frequency coils inductive link system to wirelessly provide power for at least a medical implant at an output of a receiving coil, whereby the receiving coil is configured to be implanted in an organism. The modular multiple frequency co ...
2024
In the past decades, a significant increase of the transistor density on a chip has led to exponential growth in computational power driven by Moore's law. To overcome the bottleneck of traditional von-Neumann architecture in computational efficiency, effo ...