Description of Terms
Terms which are used to describe microelectronic devices are explained below. The meanings are those which have been used throughout this guide.
• Monolithic– An integrated circuit in which the entire structure is obtained by processing a single chip of crystalline semi-conductor, i.e., a single chip device.
• iBipolar– A technology using two polarities of carriers, holes and electrons. The active region is the base, several microns beneath the surface, between the emitter and the collector.
• Unipolar (Metal oxide semi-conductor, MOS)– A technology using one type of carrier only (holes in p channel MOS; electrons in n channel MOS). Surface effect devices where the active region consists of a channel induced at the silicon/silicon dioxide interface. MOS should be taken to include all metal oxide semi-conductor microcircuits fabricated on various substrates, e.g., PMOS, NMOS, CMOS and MNOS.
• Small Scale Integration (SSI)– Devices having complexities less than 10 gates (approximately 40 transistors).
• Medium Scale Integration (MSI)– Devices having complexities between 11 and gates (approximately 44 to 400 transistors).
• Large Scale Integration (LSI)–Devices having complexities of 100 gates (approximately 400 transistors) or more.
• Digital device–. A device that operates on the basis of discrete numerical techniques in which the variables are represented by coded pulses or states.
• Linear (analogue) device– A device that operates in such a way that the output response is a continuous function of the input signal.
• Gate– A device whose output level is determined by certain specific combinations of input levels, i.e., any one of the following functions: AND, OR, NAND, NOR, Exclusive OR and Inverter.
• Bit– An abbreviation of binary digit. A unit of capacity in a storage device. The capacity, in bits, of a storage device is the logarithm to the base 2 of the number of possible states of the device.