Chapter 1
Introducing Integrated Circuits
In This Chapter
Examining integrated circuits
Protecting against damage
Deciphering IC data sheets
Meeting some of the IC family
On 25 April 1961, Robert Noyce (an engineer working in Palo Alto, California) received word that a patent application that he’d submitted a year before had been finally approved. The patent was for a new type of device that would soon become known as an integrated circuit. Exactly one month later, on 25 May, President John F. Kennedy announced to the world that the United States was going to the moon.
These two events have a lot in common, because without the integrated circuit NASA probably wouldn’t have been able to pull off Kennedy’s challenge.
In this chapter, you discover the device that put men on the moon and went on to change the world of electronics. You find out how integrated circuits are built, what they can do and why they keep getting smaller and cheaper. We also show you how to incorporate them into your own electronic projects.
