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A patterned silicon wafer, photographed in 2019. The repeated regions hint at the central manufacturing advantage: many devices can pass through the same processing steps together.
Credit: Enrique Jiménez / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0.
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A replica of Jack Kilby’s first integrated circuit at the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum. The wires remain plainly visible. Kilby had demonstrated the principle; producing such circuits in quantity was another problem.
Credit: Florian Schäffer / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0.
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The silicon die of an Apollo Guidance Computer Block II NOR-gate chip. This later device shows the physical result of integration: circuit elements and patterned connections share one small piece of silicon.
Credit: NASA; Wikimedia processing by Soerfm / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (United States).
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NASA’s electrical schematic for the Block II NOR-gate circuit. A schematic describes the intended electrical connections; it is not a drawing of their physical positions on the chip.
Credit: NASA / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (United States).
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A photolithography laboratory at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, photographed in 2013. The manufacturing method described here survives in far more elaborate facilities, where cleanliness and control remain part of making a working circuit.
Credit: O. Usher / UCL Mathematical and Physical Sciences / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0.
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An Apollo Guidance Computer with associated navigation hardware. Integration made the computer smaller, but it still had to work inside a much larger system of instruments, wiring, cooling, and spacecraft controls.
Credit: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0.
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An Intel C4004 processor in its ceramic package. Introduced in 1971 with about 2,300 transistors, the 4004 brought the central processor onto one chip; memory and other supporting functions still required additional components.
Credit: Thomas Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0.
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