Microelectronics is a subfield of

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or

microfabrication Microfabrication is the process of fabricating miniature structures of micrometre scales and smaller. Historically, the earliest microfabrication processes were used for integrated circuit fabrication, also known as "semiconductor manufacturing" ...

) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller. These devices are typically made from

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

materials. Many components of a normal electronic design are available in a microelectronic equivalent. These include

transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

inductor An inductor, also called a coil, choke, or reactor, is a Passivity (engineering), passive two-terminal electronic component, electrical component that stores energy in a magnetic field when an electric current flows through it. An inductor typic ...

resistor A resistor is a passive two-terminal electronic component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active e ...

diode A diode is a two-Terminal (electronics), terminal electronic component that conducts electric current primarily in One-way traffic, one direction (asymmetric electrical conductance, conductance). It has low (ideally zero) Electrical resistance ...

s and (naturally) insulators and conductors can all be found in microelectronic devices. Unique wiring techniques such as

wire bonding Wire bonding is a method of making interconnections between an integrated circuit (IC) or other semiconductor device and its packaging during semiconductor device fabrication. Wire bonding can also be used to connect an IC to other electronics ...

are also often used in microelectronics because of the unusually small size of the components, leads and pads. This technique requires specialized equipment and is expensive. Digital

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

s (ICs) consist of billions of transistors, resistors, diodes, and capacitors.

Analog circuit Analogue electronics () are electronic systems with a continuously variable signal, in contrast to digital electronics where signals usually take only two levels. The term ''analogue'' describes the proportional relationship between a signal ...

s commonly contain resistors and capacitors as well. Inductors are used in some high frequency analog circuits, but tend to occupy larger chip area due to their lower reactance at low frequencies.

Gyrator A gyrator is a passivity (engineering), passive, Linear circuit, linear, lossless, two-port network, two-port electrical lumped-element model, network element proposed in 1948 by Bernard D. H. Tellegen as a hypothetical fifth linear element after t ...

s can replace them in many applications. As techniques have improved, the scale of microelectronic components has continued to decrease. At smaller scales, the relative impact of intrinsic circuit properties such as

interconnection In telecommunications, interconnection is the physical linking of a carrier's network with equipment or facilities not belonging to that network. The term may refer to a connection between a carrier's facilities and the equipment belonging to its ...

s may become more significant. These are called parasitic effects, and the goal of the microelectronics design engineer is to find ways to compensate for or to minimize these effects, while delivering smaller, faster, and cheaper devices. Today, microelectronics design is largely aided by electronic design automation (EDA) software.

References

* https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-76096-4/ {{Authority control Electronics

See also

References