An integrated circuit is defined as:
A circuit in which all or some of the circuit elements are inseparably … See more

An early attempt at combining several components in one device (like modern ICs) was the Loewe 3NF vacuum tube first made in 1926. Unlike ICs, it was designed with the purpose of tax avoidance, as in Germany, r… See more

The cost of designing and developing a complex integrated circuit is quite high, normally in the multiple tens of millions of dollars. Therefore, it only makes economic sense to produce integrated circuit products with high pr… See more

The semiconductors of the periodic table of the chemical elements were identified as the most likely materials for a solid-state vacuum tube. Starting with copper oxide, proceeding to germanium, then silicon, the materials were syste… See more

The possibility of copying by photographing each layer of an integrated circuit and preparing photomasks for its production on the basis of the photographs obtained is a reason for the introduction of legislation for the protecti… See more