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Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: dcole07 on October 17, 2008, 04:18:25 PM

Title: Commercial Microcircuits
Post by: dcole07 on October 17, 2008, 04:18:25 PM

Do companies produce circuits that are smaller than a millimeter on a mass production scale?

I know IBM has made a counter that is only a few nanometers wide, so shouldn't that suggest that circuits smaller than a keyboard button are mass produced?

What is the cost as compared to size for circuits chips?

I can't seam to find a lot of information on this topic.

Title: Re: Commercial Microcircuits
Post by: izua on October 17, 2008, 08:15:13 PM

SMDs are as low as you can get for discrete types of IC (74HC or 40xx series).
Anything using smaller conductors than that results in microcontrollers or microprocessors.

I somehow doubt there's any attempt do make the actual PCB _that_ small, since it still needs to be handled, and it's economically feasible to make an IC than a microboard, if size is a constraint.