integrated circuits

Integrated circuits were made possible by experimental discoveries which showed that semiconductor devices could perform the functions of vacuum tubes, and by mid-20th-century technology advancements in semiconductor device fabrication. The integration of large numbers of tiny transistors into a small chip was an enormous improvement over the manual assembly of circuits using discrete electronic components. Up to the end of 2004, the total intellectual properties of integrated circuit all over the world had amounted to 1.02 million, in which the total number of patents applied by the enterprises in China was only 4791, accounting for 0.4 percent in the world. We have to think over the independent innovation of the industry from a new angle due to the present competition confronting China's integrated circuits industry.