What is an Integrated circuit?

1 Answer
Nov 24, 2016

A tiny piece of plastic that does some really cool stuff.

Explanation:

Integrated circuit (IC), also called microelectronic circuit or chip, an assembly of electronic components, fabricated as a single unit, in which miniaturized active devices (e.g., transistors and diodes) and passive devices (e.g., capacitors and resistors) and their interconnections are built up on a thin substrate of semiconductor material (typically silicon). The resulting circuit is thus a small monolithic “chip,” which may be as small as a few square centimetres or only a few square millimetres. The individual circuit components are generally microscopic in size.