integrated circuit

American  

noun

Electronics.

1. a circuit of transistors, resistors, and capacitors constructed on a single semiconductor wafer or chip, in which the components are interconnected to perform a given function. IC

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integrated circuit British  

noun

1.  IC.  a very small electronic circuit consisting of an assembly of elements made from a chip of semiconducting material, such as crystalline silicon

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integrated circuit Scientific  

/ ĭn′tĭ-grā′tĭd /

1. A device made of interconnected electronic components, such as transistors and resistors, that are etched or imprinted onto a tiny slice of a semiconducting material, such as silicon or germanium. An integrated circuit smaller than a fingernail can hold millions of circuits.

2. Also called chip microchip

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integrated circuit Cultural  

1. A miniaturized electrical circuit built on a microchip.

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Etymology

Origin of integrated circuit

First recorded in 1955–60

Compare meaning

How does integrated-circuit compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• microprocessor vs. integrated circuit

Example Sentences

Drivers are surging orders from a U.S. application-specific integrated circuits customer and from Nvidia as well as gross margin expansion, the analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal

Nexperia makes chips for power management, diodes, transistors, and simple integrated circuits that control parts of a car.

From Barron's

That reduces energy consumption by orders of magnitude, eliminating the need for extensive cooling and spacing of components in data centers, compared with the dominant production technology for integrated circuits.

From The Wall Street Journal

Using the era’s integrated circuits, Texas Instruments put together an onboard guidance package for each bomb.

From The Wall Street Journal

"While semiconductor chips in the 1970s were TLR-9 for that time, they could do very little compared with today's advanced integrated circuits," he said.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• chip
• circuitry
• microchip
• microprocessor
• silicon chip