Linear integrated circuit

Last updated

A linear integrated circuit or analog chip is a set of miniature electronic analog circuits formed on a single piece of semiconductor material.

Contents

Description

The voltage and current at specified points in the circuits of analog chips vary continuously over time. In contrast, digital chips only assign meaning to voltages or currents at discrete levels. In addition to transistors, analog chips often include a larger number of passive elements (capacitors, resistors, and inductors) than digital chips. Inductors tend to be avoided because of their large physical size, and difficulties incorporating them into monolithic semiconductor ICs. Certain circuits such as gyrators can often act as equivalents of inductors, while constructed only from transistors and capacitors.

Analog chips may also contain digital logic elements to replace some analog functions, or to allow the chip to communicate with a microprocessor. For this reason, and since logic is commonly implemented using CMOS technology, these chips typically use BiCMOS processes, as implemented by companies such as Freescale, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, and others. This is known as "mixed signal processing", and allows a designer to incorporate more functions into a single chip. Some of the benefits of this mixed technology include load protection, reduced parts count, and higher reliability. [1]

Purely analog chips in information processing have been mostly replaced with digital chips. Analog chips are still required for wideband signals, high-power applications, and transducer interfaces. Research and industry in this specialty continues to grow and prosper. Some examples of long-lived and well-known analog chips are the 741 operational amplifier, and the 555 timer IC.

Power supply chips are also considered to be analog chips. Their main purpose is to produce a well-regulated output voltage supply for other chips in the system. Since all electronic systems require electrical power, power supply ICs (power management integrated circuits, PMIC) are important elements of those systems.

Important basic building blocks of analog chip design include:

All the above circuit building blocks can be implemented using bipolar technology as well as Metal-Oxide-Silicon (MOS) technology. MOS band gap references use lateral bipolar transistors for their functioning.

People who have specialized in this field include Bob Widlar, Bob Pease, Hans Camenzind, George Erdi, Jim Williams, and Barrie Gilbert, among others.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Integrated circuit</span> Electronic circuit formed on a small, flat piece of semiconductor material

An integrated circuit, also known as a microchip, chip or IC, is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors. These components are etched onto a small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices, including computers, smartphones, and televisions, to perform various functions such as processing and storing information. They have greatly impacted the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization and enhanced functionality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparator</span> Device that compares two voltages or currents

In electronics, a comparator is a device that compares two voltages or currents and outputs a digital signal indicating which is larger. It has two analog input terminals and and one binary digital output . The output is ideally

Transistor–transistor logic (TTL) is a logic family built from bipolar junction transistors. Its name signifies that transistors perform both the logic function and the amplifying function, as opposed to earlier resistor–transistor logic (RTL) and diode–transistor logic (DTL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CMOS</span> Technology for constructing integrated circuits

Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFETs for logic functions. CMOS technology is used for constructing integrated circuit (IC) chips, including microprocessors, microcontrollers, memory chips, and other digital logic circuits. CMOS technology is also used for analog circuits such as image sensors, data converters, RF circuits, and highly integrated transceivers for many types of communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4000-series integrated circuits</span> Series of CMOS logic integrated circuits

The 4000 series is a CMOS logic family of integrated circuits (ICs) first introduced in 1968 by RCA. It was slowly migrated into the 4000B buffered series after about 1975. It had a much wider supply voltage range than any contemporary logic family. Almost all IC manufacturers active during this initial era fabricated models for this series. Its naming convention is still in use today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7400-series integrated circuits</span> Series of transistor–transistor logic integrated circuits

The 7400 series is a popular logic family of transistor–transistor logic (TTL) integrated circuits (ICs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">555 timer IC</span> Integrated circuit used for timer applications

The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit used in a variety of timer, delay, pulse generation, and oscillator applications. It is one of the most popular timing ICs due to its flexibility and price. Derivatives provide two or four timing circuits in one package. The design was first marketed in 1972 by Signetics and used bipolar junction transistors. Since then, numerous companies have made the original timers and later similar low-power CMOS timers. In 2017, it was said that over a billion 555 timers are produced annually by some estimates, and that the design was "probably the most popular integrated circuit ever made".

Bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) is a semiconductor technology that integrates two semiconductor technologies, those of the bipolar junction transistor and the CMOS logic gate, into a single integrated circuit. In more recent times the bipolar processes have been extended to include high mobility devices using silicon–germanium junctions.

In computer engineering, a logic family is one of two related concepts:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mixed-signal integrated circuit</span> Integrated circuit

A mixed-signal integrated circuit is any integrated circuit that has both analog circuits and digital circuits on a single semiconductor die. Their usage has grown dramatically with the increased use of cell phones, telecommunications, portable electronics, and automobiles with electronics and digital sensors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IC power-supply pin</span> Power supply connections for integrated circuits

IC power-supply pins denote a voltage and current supply terminals in electric, electronics engineering, and in Integrated circuit design. Integrated circuits (ICs) have at least two pins that connect to the power rails of the circuit in which they are installed. These are known as the power-supply pins. However, the labeling of the pins varies by IC family and manufacturer. The double subscript notation usually corresponds to a first letter in a given IC family (transistors) notation of the terminals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic component</span> Discrete device in an electronic system

An electronic component is any basic discrete electronic device or physical entity part of an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not to be confused with electrical elements, which are conceptual abstractions representing idealized electronic components and elements. A datasheet for an electronic component is a technical document that provides detailed information about the component's specifications, characteristics, and performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Depletion-load NMOS logic</span> Form of digital logic family in integrated circuits

In integrated circuits, depletion-load NMOS is a form of digital logic family that uses only a single power supply voltage, unlike earlier NMOS logic families that needed more than one different power supply voltage. Although manufacturing these integrated circuits required additional processing steps, improved switching speed and the elimination of the extra power supply made this logic family the preferred choice for many microprocessors and other logic elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PMOS logic</span> Family of digital circuits

PMOS or pMOS logic is a family of digital circuits based on p-channel, enhancement mode metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, PMOS logic was the dominant semiconductor technology for large-scale integrated circuits before being superseded by NMOS and CMOS devices.

HCMOS is the set of specifications for electrical ratings and characteristics, forming the 74HC00 family, a part of the 7400 series of integrated circuits.

A gate driver is a power amplifier that accepts a low-power input from a controller IC and produces a high-current drive input for the gate of a high-power transistor such as an IGBT or power MOSFET. Gate drivers can be provided either on-chip or as a discrete module. In essence, a gate driver consists of a level shifter in combination with an amplifier. A gate driver IC serves as the interface between control signals and power switches. An integrated gate-driver solution reduces design complexity, development time, bill of materials (BOM), and board space while improving reliability over discretely-implemented gate-drive solutions.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to electronics:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory cell (computing)</span> Part of computer memory

The memory cell is the fundamental building block of computer memory. The memory cell is an electronic circuit that stores one bit of binary information and it must be set to store a logic 1 and reset to store a logic 0. Its value is maintained/stored until it is changed by the set/reset process. The value in the memory cell can be accessed by reading it.

RF CMOS is a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) technology that integrates radio-frequency (RF), analog and digital electronics on a mixed-signal CMOS RF circuit chip. It is widely used in modern wireless telecommunications, such as cellular networks, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS receivers, broadcasting, vehicular communication systems, and the radio transceivers in all modern mobile phones and wireless networking devices. RF CMOS technology was pioneered by Pakistani engineer Asad Ali Abidi at UCLA during the late 1980s to early 1990s, and helped bring about the wireless revolution with the introduction of digital signal processing in wireless communications. The development and design of RF CMOS devices was enabled by van der Ziel's FET RF noise model, which was published in the early 1960s and remained largely forgotten until the 1990s.

References

  1. Information Freescale website, Mar 28th 2010, About Freescale Analog Products

Further reading