Semiconductor Glossary
A to B
Analog
- Analog
- An analog format is used to represent continuously variable physical quantities, including time, length, speed, and voltage. For example, mechanical clocks with the hour and minute hands display time in an analog format, whereas digital clocks use digits (i.e., numbers).
Architecture
- Architecture
- In computer science, architecture means the basic design principles of computing systems. Architecture primarily refers to a hardware configuration, but it can also include other basic elements such as the word length, addressing method, operating system, and language.
ASIC
- Application Specific Integrated Circuit
- A type of semiconductor device customized or semi-customized to suit a customer’s particular requirements. Examples of semi-customized ASICs include gate arrays, standard cells, and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
Bare Chip
- Bare Chip
- A semiconductor chip that has been diced from the wafer but not yet packaged.
BGA
- Ball Grid Array
- A type of chip carrier used for IC packaging. It has a matrix of solder balls under the package that serves as output terminals. The device is placed on a printed circuit board and heated until the solder balls melt to form connections. Because a BGA can provide numerous interconnection pins, it is often used for packaging LSIs.
Bi-CMOS
- Bipolar-Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
- An integrated circuit that integrates bipolar transistors and CMOS on a single chip. A Bi-CMOS chip combines high speed and high current drive capability of bipolar transistors with low power consumption of CMOS. It was commonly used for standard logic devices such as the 7400 series.
Bio Chip
- Bio Chip
- A microfluidic device used for biomedical purposes, made with microfabrication technologies developed for semiconductors and MEMS. Micro total analysis system (μTAS) and DNA chip are among its subcategories. The chip’s applications include genomic analysis and blood analysis.
Blue Violet Laser Diode
- Blue Violet Laser Diode
- A laser diode that emits light at the wavelength of around 410 nm. It is used as the light source for Blu-ray and other optical discs. The Blu-ray Disc format uses the 405 nm wavelength for reading/writing data.
Burn In
- Burn In
- A process by which components of a system are exercised for a certain period of time before placed in service. The process tests the reliability of ICs and LSIs and eliminates substandard or defective products. The test may be conducted in a high-temperature environment to obtain results in a relatively short time.