History of the domestic electronic component base (ECB). Large integrated circuit

Large integrated circuit(LSI) is an integrated circuit (IC) with a high degree of integration (the number of elements in it reaches 10,000), used in electronic equipment as a functionally complete unit of computer, automation, measuring equipment, etc.
Based on the number of elements, all integrated circuits are conventionally divided into the following categories:
■ simple (SIS) - with the number of elements in a crystal up to 10,
■ small (MIS) - up to 100,
■ medium (SIS) - up to 1000,
■ large (BIS) - up to 10,000,
■ extra-large (VLSI) - 1,000,000,
■ ultra-large (UBIS) - up to 1000000000,
■ giga-large (GBIS) - more than 1000000000 elements in a crystal.
Integrated circuits (ICs) containing more than 100 elements are called high-level integration circuits.
The use of LSI is accompanied by a sharp improvement in all key indicators compared to a similar functional complex implemented on separate ICs. Integration of ICs on one chip leads to a reduction in the number of packages, the number of assembly and installation operations, and the number of external - least reliable - connections. This helps reduce size, weight, cost and improve reliability.
Additional benefits from IC integration include a reduction in the total number of pads, shorter interconnect lengths, and less variation in parameters, since all ICs are located on the same chip and manufactured in a single process cycle.
The experience of developing LSIs also revealed a number of general problems that limit the increase in the degree of integration and which need to be solved in the process of further development of microelectronics:
■ heat dissipation problem,
■ interconnection problem,
■ problem of parameter control,
■ physical restrictions on the size of elements.
In 1964, for the first time based on LSI, IBM released six models of the IBM 360 family.
Examples of LSIs can also include memory circuits of 4 bits or more, arithmetic-logical and computer control devices, and digital filters. ICs are designed to solve a wide variety of problems, so they are manufactured using a combination of methods found in the arsenal of semiconductor, thin- and thick-film technologies.
It is customary to classify IMs according to manufacturing methods and the resulting structures.
A semiconductor MI is an IC in which all elements and connections between them are made in a single volume and on a single surface of a semiconductor wafer.
In hybrid microcircuits, passive components (resistors and capacitors) are applied to the surface of a dielectric plate, active components (transistors) are made in the form of separate discrete miniature components and are attached to the microcircuit.

Literature
1. Stepanenko I.P., Fundamentals of Microelectronics, M.: Laboratory of Basic Knowledge, 2003, p. 453-460.
2. Batushev A.V., Microcircuits and their application, M.: Radio and communications, 1984, p. 13-17.
3. Chernozubov Yu. S., How microcircuits are born, M.: Education, 1989, p. 14-19.

INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
(IC), a microelectronic circuit formed on a tiny wafer (crystal or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon, that is used to control and amplify electrical current. A typical IC consists of many interconnected microelectronic components, such as transistors, resistors, capacitors and diodes, fabricated at the surface layer of the chip. The sizes of silicon crystals range from about 1.3-1.3 mm to 13-13 mm. Advances in integrated circuits have led to the development of large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuits (LSI and VLSI) technologies. These technologies make it possible to obtain ICs, each of which contains many thousands of circuits: a single chip can contain more than 1 million components.
see also SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES. Integrated circuits have a number of advantages over their predecessors - circuits that were assembled from individual components mounted on a chassis. ICs are smaller, faster and more reliable; They are also cheaper and less susceptible to failure caused by vibration, moisture and aging. The miniaturization of electronic circuits was made possible due to the special properties of semiconductors. A semiconductor is a material that has much greater electrical conductivity (conductivity) than a dielectric such as glass, but significantly less than conductors such as copper. The crystal lattice of a semiconductor material such as silicon has too few free electrons at room temperature to provide significant conductivity. Therefore, pure semiconductors have low conductivity. However, introducing an appropriate impurity into silicon increases its electrical conductivity.
see also TRANSISTOR. Dopants are introduced into silicon using two methods. For heavy doping or in cases where precise control of the amount of introduced impurity is not necessary, the diffusion method is usually used.

Diffusion of phosphorus or boron is usually carried out in an atmosphere of a dopant at temperatures between 1000 and 1150 ° C for from half an hour to several hours. In ion implantation, silicon is bombarded with high-velocity dopant ions. The amount of implanted impurity can be adjusted with an accuracy of several percent; accuracy is important in some cases, since the gain of the transistor depends on the number of impurity atoms implanted per 1 cm2 of base (see below). Production.
Manufacturing an integrated circuit can take up to two months because certain areas of the semiconductor must be precisely doped. In a process called crystal growing, or crystal pulling, a cylindrical slab of high-purity silicon is first produced. From this cylinder, plates with a thickness of, for example, 0.5 mm are cut. The wafer is eventually cut into hundreds of small pieces called chips, each of which is transformed into an integrated circuit through the process described below. The chip processing process begins with the production of masks for each layer of the IC. A large-scale stencil is made, shaped like a square with an area of ​​approx. 0.1 m2. A set of such masks contains all the components of the IC: diffusion levels, interconnect levels, etc. The entire resulting structure is photographically reduced to the size of a crystal and reproduced layer by layer on a glass plate. A thin layer of silicon dioxide is grown on the surface of the silicon wafer. Each plate is coated with a light-sensitive material (photoresist) and exposed to light transmitted through masks. Unexposed areas of the photosensitive coating are removed with a solvent, and with the help of another chemical reagent that dissolves silicon dioxide, the latter is etched from those areas where it is no longer protected by the photosensitive coating. Variations of this basic process technology are used in the manufacture of two main types of transistor structures: bipolar and field-effect (MOS). Such a transistor has an n-p-n type structure or, much less commonly, a p-n-p type. Typically the process starts with a wafer (substrate) of heavily doped p-type material. A thin layer of lightly doped n-type silicon is epitaxially grown on the surface of this wafer; thus, the grown layer has the same crystal structure as the substrate. This layer must contain the active part of the transistor - individual collectors will be formed in it. The plate is first placed in a boron vapor furnace. Boron diffusion into the silicon wafer occurs only where its surface has been etched. As a result, regions and windows of n-type material are formed. A second high-temperature process, which uses phosphorus vapor and another mask, serves to form contact with the collector layer. By carrying out successive diffusions of boron and phosphorus, the base and emitter are formed, respectively. The thickness of the base is usually several microns. These tiny islands of n- and p-type conductivity are connected into a common circuit through interconnects made of aluminum vapor deposited or vacuum sputtered. Sometimes noble metals such as platinum and gold are used for these purposes. Transistors and other circuit elements such as resistors, capacitors and inductors, along with associated interconnects, can be formed in the wafer by diffusion techniques through a series of operations, ultimately creating a complete electronic circuit. See also TRANSISTOR.
MOSFET transistor. The most widely used is MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) - a structure consisting of two closely spaced regions of n-type silicon implemented on a p-type substrate. A layer of silicon dioxide is built up on the surface of the silicon, and on top of this layer (between the n-type regions and slightly capturing them) a localized layer of metal is formed, which acts as a gate. The two n-type regions mentioned above, called source and drain, serve as connecting elements for the input and output, respectively. Through windows provided in the silicon dioxide, metal connections are made to the source and drain. A narrow surface channel of n-type material connects the source and drain; in other cases, the channel may be induced - created by voltage applied to the gate. When a positive voltage is applied to the gate of an induced channel transistor, the p-type layer underneath the gate is converted to an n-type layer, and a current controlled and modulated by the signal entering the gate flows from source to drain. The MOSFET consumes very little power; It has high input impedance, low drain current and very low noise. Because the gate, oxide, and silicon form a capacitor, such a device is widely used in computer memory systems (see below). In complementary, or CMOS, circuits, the MOS structures are used as loads and do not consume power when the main MOS transistor is in the inactive state.



After processing is completed, the plates are cut into pieces. The cutting operation is performed with a circular saw with diamond edges. Each crystal (chip, or IC) is then enclosed in one of several types of housing. 25 micron gold wire is used to connect the IC components to the package lead frame. Thicker frame pins allow the IC to be connected to the electronic device in which it will operate.
Reliability. The reliability of an integrated circuit is approximately the same as that of an individual silicon transistor, equivalent in shape and size. Theoretically, transistors can last thousands of years without failure - a critical factor for applications such as rocketry and space technology, where a single failure can mean complete failure of the project.
Microprocessors and minicomputers. First introduced publicly in 1971, microprocessors performed most of the basic functions of a computer on a single silicon IC, implemented on a 5-5 mm chip. Thanks to integrated circuits, it became possible to create minicomputers - small computers where all functions are performed on one or more large integrated circuits. This impressive miniaturization has led to a dramatic reduction in the cost of computing. The minicomputers currently produced, priced at less than $1,000, are as powerful as the first very large computers, which cost up to $20 million in the early 1960s. Microprocessors are used in communications equipment, pocket calculators, and wristwatches. watches, television channel selectors, electronic games, automated kitchen and banking equipment, automatic fuel control and exhaust gas aftertreatment in passenger cars, as well as many other devices. Much of the $15 billion global electronics industry relies on integrated circuits in one way or another. Around the world, integrated circuits are used in equipment with a total value of many tens of billions of dollars.
Computer storage devices. In electronics, the term "memory" usually refers to any device designed to store information in digital form. Among the many types of storage devices (MSDs), we consider random access memory (RAM), charge-coupled device (CCD), and read-only memory (ROM). For RAM, the access time to any memory cell located on the chip is the same. Such devices can store 65,536 bits (binary units, typically 0 and 1), one bit per cell, and are a widely used type of electronic memory; on each chip they have approx. 150 thousand components. RAMs are available with a capacity of 256 Kbit (K = 210 = 1024; 256 K = 262,144). In memory devices with sequential access, the circulation of stored bits occurs as if along a closed conveyor (CCDs use exactly this type of sampling). A CCD, a specially configured IC, can place packets of electrical charges under closely spaced tiny pieces of metal that are electrically isolated from the chip. Charge (or lack thereof) can thus move throughout the semiconductor device from one cell to another. As a result, it becomes possible to store information as a sequence of ones and zeros (binary code), and access it when required. Although CCDs cannot compete with RAM memory in terms of speed, they can process large amounts of information at a lower cost and are used where random access memory is not required. The RAM, made on such an IC, is volatile, and the information recorded in it is lost when the power is turned off. Information is entered into ROM during the production process and is stored permanently. The development and release of new types of IP does not stop. Erasable programmable ROMs (EPROMs) have two gates, one on top of the other. When voltage is applied to the upper gate, the lower one can acquire a charge, which corresponds to 1 in the binary code, and when switching (reversing) the voltage, the gate can lose its charge, which corresponds to 0 in the binary code.
see also
OFFICE EQUIPMENT AND OFFICE EQUIPMENT;
COMPUTER ;
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS;
INFORMATION ACCUMULATION AND SEARCH.
LITERATURE
Meizda F. Integrated circuits: technology and applications. M., 1981 Zi S. Physics of semiconductor devices. M., 1984 VLSI technology. M., 1986 Maller R., Keimin S. Elements of integrated circuits. M., 1989 Shur M.S. Physics of semiconductor devices. M., 1992

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

See what "INTEGRATED CIRCUIT" is in other dictionaries:

    A solid-state device containing a group of devices and their connections (connections), made on a single plate (substrate). In I. s. Passive elements (capacitances, resistances) and active elements are integrated, the action of which is based on various. physical... ... Physical encyclopedia

    - (IC, integrated circuit, microcircuit), microminiature device with a high packing density of elements (diodes, transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc.), inextricably linked (united) with each other structurally, technologically... ... Modern encyclopedia

    - (IC integrated circuit, microcircuit), a microminiature electronic device, the elements of which are inextricably linked (united) structurally, technologically and electrically. IS are divided: according to the method of combining (integrating) elements into... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    integrated circuit- (ITU T Q.1741). Topics: telecommunications, basic concepts EN integrated circuitIC...

    Technical Translator's Guide

    The "BIS" request is redirected here; see also other meanings. Modern integrated circuits designed for surface mounting Integrated (micro)circuit (... Wikipedia - (IS). integrated circuit (IC), microcircuit, microminiature electronic device with a high packing density of interconnected (usually electrically) elements (diodes, transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc.),... ...

    Big Encyclopedic Polytechnic Dictionary - (IC, integrated circuit, microcircuit), a microminiature electronic device, the elements of which are manufactured in a single technological cycle and are inextricably linked (united) structurally and electrically. Integrated circuits are divided into: ...

encyclopedic Dictionary

Varady G.K. 404 platoon.

Integrated circuits.

1) Plan:

2) Introduction (concept, device).

3) Types of IP.

4) Pros and cons of IP.

5) Production.

Application.

Introduction. (from lat. integration

An IC is a microelectronic circuit formed on a tiny wafer (crystal or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon, that is used to control and amplify electrical current. A typical IC consists of many interconnected microelectronic components, such as transistors, resistors, capacitors and diodes, fabricated at the surface layer of the chip. The dimensions of silicon crystals range from approximately 1.3 x 1.3 mm to 13 x 13 mm. Advances in integrated circuits have led to the development of large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuits (LSI and VLSI) technologies.

Classification.

Depending on the degree of integration (number of elements for digital circuits), the following names of integrated circuits are used:

    small integrated circuit (MIS) - up to 100 elements per chip,

    medium integrated circuit (SIS) - up to 1000 elements per chip,

    large integrated circuit (LSI) - up to 10 thousand elements per chip,

    ultra-large-scale integrated circuit (VLSI) - more than 10 thousand elements in a crystal.

Previously, now outdated names were also used: ultra-large-scale integrated circuit (ULIS) - from 1-10 million to 1 billion elements in a crystal and, sometimes, giga-large-scale integrated circuit (GBIC) - more than 1 billion elements in a crystal. Currently, in the 2010s, the names “UBIS” and “GBIS” are practically not used, and all microcircuits with more than 10 thousand elements are classified as VLSI.

Pros and cons of IP.

Integrated circuits have a number of advantages over their predecessors, analog circuits, which were assembled from individual components mounted on a chassis. ICs are smaller, faster and more reliable; They are also cheaper and less susceptible to failure caused by vibration, moisture and aging. The miniaturization of electronic circuits was made possible due to the special properties of semiconductors. Their main advantages are considered:

    Reduced power consumption associated with the use of pulsed electrical signals in digital electronics. When receiving and converting such signals, the active elements of electronic devices (transistors) operate in the “key” mode, that is, the transistor is either “open” - which corresponds to a high-level signal (1), or “closed” - (0), in the first case at there is no voltage drop in the transistor, in the second there is no voltage drop through it.

    In both cases, power consumption is close to 0, in contrast to analog devices, in which most of the time the transistors are in an intermediate (active) state. High noise immunity

    digital devices is associated with a large difference between high (for example, 2.5-5 V) and low (0-0.5 V) level signals. A state error is possible at such a level of interference that a high level is interpreted as a low level and vice versa, which is unlikely. In addition, digital devices can use special codes to correct errors.

Reliability. Large difference in signal state levels

Diffusion of phosphorus or boron is usually carried out in an atmosphere of a dopant at temperatures between 1000 and 1150 ° C for from half an hour to several hours. In ion implantation, silicon is bombarded with high-velocity dopant ions. The amount of implanted impurity can be adjusted with an accuracy of several percent; accuracy is important in some cases, since the gain of the transistor depends on the number of impurity atoms implanted per 1 cm2 of base (see below).

Manufacturing an integrated circuit can take up to two months because certain areas of the semiconductor must be precisely doped. In a process called crystal growing, or crystal pulling, a cylindrical slab of high-purity silicon is first produced. From this cylinder, plates with a thickness of, for example, 0.5 mm are cut. The wafer is eventually cut into hundreds of small pieces called chips, each of which is transformed into an integrated circuit through the process described below. The chip processing process begins with the production of masks for each layer of the IC. A large-scale stencil is made, shaped like a square with an area of ​​approx. 0.1 m2. A set of such masks contains all the components of the IC: diffusion levels, interconnect levels, etc. The entire resulting structure is photographically reduced to size. crystalline and reproduced layer by layer on a glass plate. A thin layer of silicon dioxide is grown on the surface of the silicon wafer. Each plate is coated with a light-sensitive material (photoresist) and exposed to light transmitted through masks. Unexposed areas of the photosensitive coating are removed with a solvent, and with the help of another chemical reagent that dissolves silicon dioxide, the latter is etched from those areas where it is no longer protected by the photosensitive coating. Variations of this basic process technology are used in the manufacture of two main types of transistor structures: bipolar and field-effect (MOS).

Application. Local\Global.

Local.

Directly in circuit design, an integrated circuit can take on a huge number of tasks. Among them may be:

Logic elements, Triggers, Counters, Registers, Buffer converters, Encoders, Decoders, Digital comparator, Multiplexers, Demultiplexers, Adders, Half adders, Keys, Microcontrollers, (Micro)processors (including CPUs for computers), Single-chip microcomputers, Microcircuits and memory modules, FPGAs (programmable logic integrated circuits).

Global.

Microprocessors and minicomputers. First introduced publicly in 1971, microprocessors performed most of the basic functions of a computer on a single silicon IC, implemented on a 5x5 mm chip. Thanks to integrated circuits It became possible to create minicomputers - small computers, where all functions are performed on one or more large integrated circuits. This impressive miniaturization has led to a dramatic reduction in the cost of computing. The minicomputers currently produced, priced at less than $1,000, are as powerful as the first very large computers, which cost up to $20 million in the early 1960s. Microprocessors are used in communications equipment, pocket calculators, and wristwatches. watches, television channel selectors, electronic games, automated kitchen and banking equipment, automatic fuel control and exhaust gas aftertreatment in passenger cars, as well as many other devices. Most of the global electronics industry, whose turnover exceeds 795 billion rubles, one way or another depends on integrated circuits. Throughout the world, integrated circuits are used in equipment whose total cost amounts to many hundreds of billions of rubles.

Literature.

Meizda F. Integrated circuits: technology and applications. M., 1981 Zi S. Physics of semiconductor devices. M., 1984 VLSI technology. M., 1986 Maller R., Keimin S. Elements of integrated circuits. M., 1989 Shur M.S. Physics of semiconductor devices. M., 1992

In early electrical computers, the circuit components that performed the operations were vacuum tubes. These tubes, which resembled light bulbs, consumed a lot of electricity and generated a lot of heat. Everything changed in 1947 with the invention of the transistor. This small device used a semiconductor material, named for its ability to both conduct and trap electrical current, depending on whether there was electrical current in the semiconductor itself. This new technology made it possible to build all kinds of electrical switches on silicon chips. Transistor circuits took up less space and consumed less power. For more powerful computers, integrated circuits, or ICs, were created.

Nowadays, transistors have become microscopically small, and the entire IC circuit fits on a 1-inch square piece of semiconductor. Small blocks mounted in rows on a computer circuit board are integrated circuits enclosed in plastic cases. Each microcircuit contains a set of simple circuit elements, or devices. Most of them are occupied by transistors. An IC may also include diodes, which allow electrical current to flow in only one direction, and resistors, which block the current.
Fixed parts. In the interior of a computer, rows of integrated circuits in protective housings, as shown below, are mounted on the computer's circuit board (green). Each pale green line represents a path along which electric current flows; together they form “highways” through which electric current is carried from circuit to circuit.

Tiny messengers. Along the edge of the chip, highly magnetized wires, reminiscent of human hairs, send electrical signals from the electrical circuit (named above). These gold or aluminum wires are virtually resistant to corrosion and are good conductors of electricity.

Anatomy of a transistor
Transistors, the basic microscopic elements of an electronic circuit, are switches that turn electrical current on and off. Small metal tracks (gray) conduct current (red and green) from these devices. Organized into a combination called logic gates, transistors respond to electrical impulses in a variety of preset ways, allowing the computer to perform a wide range of tasks.

Logic diagram. If the incoming electrical current (red arrows) activates the base of each transistor, the supply current (green arrows) will rush to the output wiring.

In this article we will talk about microcircuits, what types there are, how they are designed and where they are used. In general, in modern electronic technology it is difficult to find a device that does not use microcircuits. Even the cheapest Chinese toys use various planar, compound-filled chips that are assigned control functions. Moreover, every year they become more and more complex on the inside, but easier to operate and smaller in size on the outside. We can say that there is a constant evolution of microcircuits.

A microcircuit is an electronic device or part of it capable of performing a particular task. If it were necessary to solve such a problem, which is solved by many microcircuits, using discrete elements, using transistors, then the device, instead of a small rectangle measuring 1 centimeter by 5 centimeters, would occupy an entire cabinet and would be much less reliable. But this is what computers looked like half a hundred years ago!

Electronic control cabinet - photo

Of course, for a microcircuit to operate, it is not enough to simply supply power to it; you also need a so-called " body kit”, that is, those auxiliary parts on the board, together with which the microcircuit can perform its function.

Chip body kit - drawing

In the figure above, the microcircuit itself is highlighted in red; all other parts are its " body kit" Very often, microcircuits heat up during their operation; these can be microcircuits for stabilizers, microprocessors and other devices. In this case, to prevent the microcircuit from burning out, it must be attached to a radiator. Microcircuits that must heat up during operation are designed immediately with a special heat sink plate - a surface usually located on the back side of the microcircuit, which must fit tightly to the radiator.

But in the connection, even with a carefully polished radiator and plate, there will still be microscopic gaps, as a result of which heat from the microcircuit will be less efficiently transferred to the radiator. In order to fill these gaps, heat-conducting paste is used. The same one that we apply to the computer processor before fixing the radiator on top of it. One of the most widely used pastes is KPT–8.

Amplifiers on microcircuits can be soldered in literally 1-2 evenings, and they begin to work immediately, without the need for complex setup and highly qualified tuners. Separately, I would like to say about car amplifier microcircuits; sometimes there are literally 4-5 parts from a body kit. To assemble such an amplifier, with some care, you don’t even need a printed circuit board (although it is desirable) and you can assemble everything using a surface-mounted installation, directly on the pins of the microcircuit.

True, after assembly, it is better to immediately place such an amplifier in a housing, because such a design is unreliable, and in the event of an accidental short circuit of the wires, the microcircuit can easily be burned. Therefore, I recommend that all beginners spend a little more time making a printed circuit board.

Regulated power supplies based on stabilizer chips are even easier to manufacture than similar ones based on transistors. Look how many parts a simple LM317 microcircuit replaces:


Microcircuits on printed circuit boards in electronic devices can be soldered either directly to the print tracks or placed in special sockets.

Socket for deep chip - photo

The difference is that in the first case, in order to replace the microcircuit, we will have to desolder it first. And in the second case, when we put the microcircuit in the socket, we just need to remove the microcircuit from the socket, and it can be easily replaced with another one. A typical example of replacing a microprocessor in a computer.

Also, for example, if you are assembling a device on a microcontroller on a printed circuit board, and have not provided for in-circuit programming, you can, if you soldered into the board not the chip itself, but the socket into which it is inserted, then the chip can be removed and connected to a special programmer board .

Such boards already have sockets soldered into different microcontroller housings for programming.

Analog and digital microcircuits

Microcircuits are available in various types; they can be either analog or digital. The former, as the name implies, work with an analog signal form, while the latter work with a digital signal form. An analog signal can take different forms.

A digital signal is a sequence of ones and zeros, high and low level signals. A high level is ensured by applying 5 volts or a voltage close to it to the pin, a low level is the absence of voltage or 0 volts.

There are also microcircuits ADC (analog to digital converter) And DAC (digital - analog converter) which converts the signal from analog to digital, and vice versa. A typical example of an ADC is used in a multimeter to convert measured electrical quantities and display them on the multimeter's screen. In the figure below, the ADC is a black drop with tracks approaching from all sides.

Microcontrollers

Relatively recently, in comparison with the production of transistors and microcircuits, the production of microcontrollers was launched. What is a microcontroller?

This is a special chip, can be produced in both Dip so in SMD execution, in the memory of which a program can be written, the so-called Hex file. This is a file of compiled firmware, which is written in a special program code editor. But it’s not enough to write the firmware; you need to transfer it, flash it into the microcontroller’s memory.

Programmer - photo

Serves for this purpose programmer. As many people know, there are many different types of microcontrollers - AVR, PIC and others, for different types we need different programmers. There is also, and everyone will be able to find and make one that is suitable for their level of knowledge and capabilities. If you don’t want to make a programmer yourself, you can buy a ready-made one in an online store or order it from China.

The figure above shows a microcontroller in an SMD package. What are the advantages of using microcontrollers? Previously, when designing and assembling a device using discrete elements or microcircuits, we specified the operation of the device through a specific, often complex connection on a printed circuit board using many parts. Now we just need to write a program for a microcontroller that will do the same thing programmatically, often faster and more reliably than a circuit without the use of microcontrollers. The microcontroller is a whole computer, with input/output ports, the ability to connect a display and sensors, as well as control other devices.

Of course, the improvement of microcircuits will not stop there, and we can assume that in 10 years there will actually be microcircuits from the word " micro" - invisible to the eye, which will contain billions of transistors and other elements, several atoms in size - then the creation of the most complex electronic devices will really become accessible even to not very experienced radio amateurs! Our brief review has come to an end, we were with you AKV.

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