11. Integrated Circuits and Resistive Sensors

So far, the components we have studied are simple, basic components—batteries, resistors, diodes, and so on. In this chapter, we are going to start to look at integrated circuits, also called chips, microchips, or ICs. An IC is a miniaturized circuit placed on silicon. It is a whole collection of parts geared around a specific function. These functions may be small, such as comparing voltages or amplifying voltages, or they may be complex, such as processing video or even complete computers. A single chip may hold just a few components, or it may hold billions.