Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit, or IC, is a complete electronic circuit on one small piece of silicon, sealed in a package that can be soldered to a board. In this build it stands for the many smaller chips around the TV, each with its own job, from running the power supply to amplifying sound.

Making one starts with a finished silicon die. The die is glued onto the center pad of a lead frame. A wire bonder then connects each pad on the die to a finger of the frame with a bond wire. The frame goes into a mold, and hot mold compound is pushed in around the die and wires and cured into the familiar black body. The strip is trimmed to separate the legs, which are bent into shape and plated. Finally, each chip is tested and marked by laser.

In the TV, integrated circuits include the controllers and LED driver on the power supply board, the timing controller on the timing controller board, the radio chip in the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module, the microcontroller in the remote control, and the power, audio, tuner and HDMI chips on the main board. Jack Kilby built the first integrated circuit in 1958, and Robert Noyce made a practical silicon version in 1959.