What are Integrated Circuits

IC is a short form for the name integrated circuit. We know that we purchase Masala Powder for some special cooking (like Pav-Bhaji Masala). What is this Masala Powder? Simply combination of some special spices in a fixed proportion developed for some Special Purpose. Same thing is applied in electronics. When one need some special combination of electronic components doing some special work, we combine them all in small form and make an IC. IC is nothing different than combination of some transistors, resistors and capacitors. These components in very small size are embedded on small silicon wafer and an IC is made. IC’s are made for various purposes. There are various sizes of IC’s depending upon how many pins they have. We include 8-pin IC with e-vidya kit. There are many options depending upon these pin count like 6-Pin, 8-Pin, 14-pin and so On

To read the pin no of IC, there is a notch in the IC, and the Pin no starts from Left on the IC, see the picture below

 

In case of 8-pin IC, there are 4 pins on each side and hence the last pin from left side is 4, whereas on the other side, it starts from 5 and above till 8 being the top pin. See below

 

While inserting IC’s into breadboard, we’ve to take care that the pins of IC should not short with each other, so IC should be inserted in breadboard like shown below

 

There are various IC’s available to do various jobs. Each IC may have different pin configuration and different package in which they are built. There are different IC packages depending upon the pin count.

There are various pin counts in the IC’s which are available. Most common ones are 3-pin IC, 4-Pin, 8, 14, 16, 18, 20, 28 and 40-Pin IC. Below is a picture showing all of them