Integrated_Circuits(集成电路)电子信息类专业英语、计算机类专业英语文章

Integrated Circuits(集成电路)

The Integrated Circuit

Digital logic and electronic circuits derive their functionality from electronic switches called transistor. Roughly speaking, the transistor can be likened to an electronically controlled valve whereby energy applied to one connection of the valve enables energy to flow between two other connections.By combining multiple transistors, digital logic building blocks such as AND gates and flip-flops are formed. Transistors, in turn, are made from semiconductors. Consult a periodic table of elements in a college chemistry textbook, and you will locate semiconductors as a group of elements separating the metals and nonmetals.They are called semiconductors because of their ability to behave as both metals and nonmetals. A semiconductor can be made to conduct electricity like a metal or to insulate as a nonmetal does. These differing electrical properties can be accurately controlled by mixing the semiconductor with small amounts of other elements. This mixing is called doping. A semiconductor can be doped to contain more electrons (N-type) or fewer electrons (P-type). Examples of commonly used semiconductors are silicon and germanium. Phosphorous and boron are two elements that are used to dope N-type and P-type silicon, respectively.

A transistor is constructed by creating a sandwich of differently doped semiconductor layers. The two most common types of transistors, the bipolar-junction transistor (BJT) and the field-effect transistor (FET) are schematically illustrated.This figure shows both the silicon structures of these elements and their graphical symbolic representation as would be seen in a circuit diagram. The BJT shown is an NPN transistor, because it is composed of a sandwich of N-P-N doped silicon. When a small current is injected into the base terminal, a larger current is enabled to flow from the collector to the emitter.The FET shown is an N-channel FET, which is composed of two N-type regions separated by a P-type substrate. When a voltage is applied to the insulated gate terminal, a current is enabled to flow from the drain to the source. It is called N-channel, because the gate voltage induces an N-channel within the substrate, enabling current to flow between the N-regions.

Another basic semiconductor structure is a diode, which is formed simply by a junction of N-type and P-type silicon. Diodes act like one-way valves by conducting current only from P to N. Special diodes can be created that emit light when a voltage is applied. Appropriately enough, these components are called light emitting diodes, or LEDs. These small lights are manufactured by the millions and are found in diverse applications from telephones to traffic lights.

The resulting small chip of semiconductor material on which a transistor or diode is fabricated can be encased in a small plastic package for protection against damage and contamination from the out-side world.Small wires are connected within this package between the semiconductor sandwich and pins that protrude from the package to make electrical contact with other parts of the intended circuit. Once you have several discrete transistors, digital logic can be built by directly wiring these components together. The circuit will function, but any substantial amount of digital logic will be very bulky, because several transistors are required to implement each of the various types of logic gates.

At the time of the invention of the transistor in 1947 by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, the only way to assemble multiple transistors into a single circuit was to buy

separate discrete transistors and wire them together. In 1959, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce independently invented a means of fabricating multiple transistors on a single slab of semiconductor material. Their invention would come to be known as the integrated circuit, or IC, which is the foundation of our modern computerized world. An IC is so called because it integrates multiple transistors and diodes onto the same small semiconductor chip. Instead of having to solder individual wires between discrete components, an IC contains many small components that are already wired together in the desired topology to form a circuit.

A typical IC, without its plastic or ceramic package, is a square or rectangular silicon die measuring from 2 to 15 mm on an edge. Depending on the level of technology used to manufacture the IC, there may be anywhere from a dozen to tens of millions of individual transistors on this small chip. This amazing density of electronic components indicates that the transistors and the wires that connect them are extremely small in size. Dimensions on an IC are measured in units of micrometers, with one micrometer (1mm) being one millionth of a meter. To serve as a reference point, a human hair is roughly 100mm in diameter. Some modern ICs contain components and wires that are measured in increments as small as 0.1mm!

When an IC is designed and fabricated, it generally follows one of two main transistor technologies: bipolar or metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS). Bipolar processes create BJTs, whereas MOS processes create FETs. Bipolar logic was more common before the 1980s, but MOS technologies have since accounted the great majority of digital logic ICs. N-channel FETs are fabricated in an NMOS process, and P-channel FETs are fabricated in a PMOS process. In the 1980s, complementary-MOS, or CMOS, became the dominant process technology and remains so to this day. CMOS ICs incorporate both NMOS and PMOS transistors.

Application Specific Integrated Circuit

An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is an integrated circuit (IC) customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use. For example, a chip designed solely to run a cell phone is an ASIC. In contrast, the 7400 series and 4000 series integrated circuits are logic building blocks that can be wired together for use in many different applications.

As feature sizes have shrunk and design tools improved over the years, the maximum complexity (and hence functionality) possible in an ASIC has grown from 5,000 gates to over 100 million.Modern ASICs often include entire 32-bit processors, memory blocks including ROM, RAM, EEPROM, Flash and other large building blocks. Such an ASIC is often termed a SoC (System-on-Chip). Designers of digital ASICs use a hardware description language (HDL), such as Verilog or VHDL, to describe the functionality of ASICs.

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are the modern day equivalent of 7400 series logic and a breadboard, containing programmable logic blocks and programmable interconnects that allow the same FPGA to be used in many different applications. For smaller designs and/or lower production volumes, FPGAs may be more cost effective than an ASIC design. The non-recurring engineering cost (the cost to setup the factory to produce a particular ASIC) can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The general term application specific integrated circuit includes FPGAs, but most designers use ASIC only for non-field programmable devices and make a distinction between ASIC and FPGAs.

中文翻译：

集成电路

集成电路

数字逻辑和电子电路由称为晶体管的电子开关得到它们的（各种）功能。粗略地说，晶体管好似一种电子控制阀，由此加在阀一端的能量可以使能量在另外两个连接端之间流动。通过多个晶体管的组合就可以构成数字逻辑模块，如与门和触发电路等。而晶体管是由半导体构成的。查阅大学化学书中的元素周期表，你会查到半导体是介于金属与非金属之间的一类元素。它们之所以被叫做半导体是由于它们表现出来的性质类似于金属和非金属。可使半导体像金属那样导电，或者像非金属那样绝缘。通过半导体和少量其它元素的混合可以精确地控制这些不同的电特性，这种混合技术称之为“半导体掺杂”。半导体通过掺杂可以包含更多的电子（N型）或更少的电子（P型）。常用的半导体是硅和锗，N型硅半导体掺入磷元素，而P型硅半导体掺入硼元素。

不同掺杂的半导体层形成的三明治状夹层结构可以构成一个晶体管，最常见的两类晶体管是双极型晶体管（BJT）和场效应晶体管（FET），这些晶体管的硅结构，以及它们用于电路图中的符号。BJT是NPN晶体管，因为由N—P—N掺杂硅三层构成。当小电流注入基极时，可使较大的电流从集电极流向发射极。图示的FET是N沟道的场效应型晶体管，它由两块被P型基底分离的N型组成。将电压加在绝缘的栅极上时，可使电流由漏极流向源极。它被叫做N沟道是因为栅极电压诱导基底上的N通道，使电流能在两个N区域之间流动。

另一个基本的半导体结构是二极管，由N型和P型硅连接而成的结组成。二极管的作用就像一个单向阀门，由于电流只能从P流向N。可以构建一些特殊二极管，在加电压时可以发光，这些器件非常合适地被叫做发光二极管或LED。这种小灯泡数以百万计地被制造出来，有各种各样的应用，从电话机到交通灯。

半导体材料上制作晶体管或二极管所形成的小芯片用塑料封装以防损伤和被外界污染。在这封装里一些短线连接半导体夹层和从封装内伸出的插脚以便与（使用该晶体管的）电路其余部分连接。一旦你有了一些分立的晶体管，直接用电线将这些器件连线在一起就可以构建数字逻辑（电路）。电路会工作，但任何实质性的数字逻辑（电路）都将十分庞大，因为要在各种逻辑门中每实现一种都需要多个晶体管。

1947年，John Bardeen、Walter Brattain和and William Shockley发明晶体管的时候。将多个晶体管组装在一个电路上的唯一方法就是购买多个分离的晶体管，将它们连在一起。1959年，Jack Kilby 和 Robert Noyce各自独立地发明了一种将多个晶体管做在同一片半导体材料上的方法。这个发明就是集成电路，或IC，是我们现代电脑化世界的基础。集成电路之所以被这样命名，是因为它将多个晶体管和二极管集成到同一块小的半导体芯片上。IC包含按照形成电路所要求的拓扑结构连在一起的许多小元件，而无需再将分立元件

的导线焊接起来。

去除了塑料或陶瓷封装后，一个典型的集成电路就是每一边2mm至15mm的方形或矩形硅片。根据制造集成电路的技术水平的不同，在这种小片上可能有几十个到几百万个晶体管，电子器件这种令人惊异的密度表明那些晶体管以及连接它们线是极其微小的。集成电路的尺寸是以微米为单位测量的，1微米是1米的百万分之一。作为参照，一根人的头发其直径大约为100微米。一些现代集成电路包含的元件和连线，是以小到0.1微米的增量来测量的。在集成电路的设计和制造过程中，常用两种主要晶体管技术是：双极和金属氧化物半导体（MOS）。双极工艺生产出来的是BJT（双极型晶体管），而MOS工艺生产出来的是FET（场效应晶体管）。在20世纪80年代以前更常用的集成电路是双极逻辑，但是此后MOS技术在数字逻辑集成电路中占据了大多数。N沟道FET是采用NMOS工艺生产的，而P沟道FET是采用PMOS工艺生产的。到了20世纪80年代，互补MOS即CMOS成为占主导地位的加工技术，并且延续至今。CMOS集成电路包含了NMOS和PMOS两种晶体管。

专用集成电路（ASIC）

专用集成电路（ASIC）是为了特殊应用而定制的集成电路，而不是通用的。比如，一片仅被设计用于运行蜂窝式电话的芯片是专用集成电路（ASIC）。相比之下，7400与4000系列集成电路是可以用导线连接的逻辑构建模块，适用于各种不同的应用。

随着逐年来特征尺寸的缩小和设计工具的改进，ASIC中的最大复杂度从5000个门电路增长到了1亿个门电路，因而功能也有极大的提高。现代ASIC常包含32位处理器，包括ROM、RAM、EEPROM、Flash等存储器，以及其它大规模组件。这样的ASIC经常被称为SoC （片上系统）。数字ASIC的设计者们使用硬件描述语言（HDL），比如Verilog或VHDL语言来描述ASIC的功能。

现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）是7400系列和面包板的现代版，它包括可编程逻辑块和可编程的模块之间的相互连接，使得相同的FPGA能够用于许多不同的场合。对于较小规模的设计或（与）小批量生产，FPGA可能比ASIC设计有更高的成本效率。不能循坏的工程费用（建立工厂生产特定ASIC的成本）可能会达到数十万美元。

专用集成电路这一通用名词也包括FPGA，但是大多数设计者仅将ASIC用于非现场可编程的器件，将ASIC和FPGA两者区别开来。

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班级：电信1001班

姓名：李梦妮

时间：2012/5/10