Under normal circumstances, semiconductors, integrated circuits, and chips can be equated, because they are actually talking about the same thing.

Semiconductor is a kind of material, which is divided into four categories in the table. Since the proportion of integrated circuits is very high, exceeding 80%, the industry is accustomed to refer to the semiconductor industry as the integrated circuit industry.

The chip is the carrier of the integrated circuit. In a broad sense, we equate the chip with the integrated circuit.

So for Xiaobai, just remember that when chips, integrated circuits, and semiconductors appear, don't panic, they are the same thing.

The internal structure of a semiconductor chip

Although semiconductor chips are small in size. But the internal structure is very complex, especially its core micro-unit - thousands of transistors. Let's explain in detail the internal structure of the semiconductor chip integrated circuit. Generally, we use the structural hierarchy from large to small to understand integrated circuits, which will be better understood.

(1) System level

Let's still take the mobile phone as an example. The entire mobile phone is a complex circuit system. It can play games, make calls, listen to music, and beep. Its internal structure is composed of multiple semiconductor chips and the interconnection of resistors, inductors, and capacitors, which is called the system level. (Of course, with the development of technology, the technology of building an entire system on a chip has appeared for many years-SoC technology)

(2) Module level

In the whole system, it is divided into many functional modules, each of which performs its duties. Some manage power, some are responsible for communication, some are responsible for display, some are responsible for sound, some are responsible for commanding the overall calculation, and so on. We call it module level. Every module here is a huge field, which gathers the crystallization of countless human wisdom and supports many companies.