Essential Guide to Semiconductors, The

Highly Integrated Digital Chips

Once the trend toward integrating transistors and other discrete components into larger integrated components was under way, there was no stopping it. Today, big chips contain millions of gates of logic, which implies millions of transistors, resistors, diodes, capacitors, and other basic components all rolled together.

Such highly integrated chips are generically called VLSI components. There's no specific test for a chip to be considered a VLSI device; anything more than about a million transistors probably qualifies. By that measure, most new chips qualify as VLSI components.

These large-scale digital chips take many forms, from memory chips to microprocessor chips. These are the most complex and elaborate semiconductor ...