Introduction
Generally speaking, a chip can perform some all functions or sub-functions in a large combination, such as the radio frequency subsystem of a mobile phone, or a DVD player. Take the data path and the cantilever control logic of the laser reading head. They usually contain an entire system chip.
In the aforementioned examples of using digital circuits and analog circuits, mixed-signal integrated circuits are often designed for specific purposes, but they may also be standard components for multiple purposes. Moreover, the design of mixed-signal integrated circuits requires a very high degree of professionalism and careful use of computer-aided design tools. The automated testing of finished chips is also more challenging than general ICs. Both Teradyne and Agilent Technologies are major suppliers of mixed-signal chip test equipment.
Product examples
PSoC
Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC), a programmable mixed signal Array architecture, controlled by a built-in microcontroller (MCU) on the chip, integrating configurable analog and digital circuits, including UART, timer, amplifier, comparator, and digital-to-analog converter (ADC) , Pulse width modulation (PWM), filter (Filter), and SPI, GPIO, I2C and other components dozens of components, to help customers save research and development time.
Altera, Atmel, Xilinx, Lattice have all launched PSoC products. There are two ways to realize PSoC: use FPGA/CPLD; the other is to add programmable modules in ASIC.
MSP430
MSP430 is a series of 16-bit microcontrollers and their brands produced by Texas Instruments. It is an ultra-low-power 16-bit mixed-signal processor with reduced instruction set. The frequency has 8/16/25MHz to choose from. The chip contains ADC, DAC, clock, watchdog, RAM, flash or ROM, and supports I²C, CAN, etc.
It is divided into several series:
x1xx series;
x2xx series;
x4xx series, including LCD controller ;
x5xx series.
Analog integrated circuit
Analog integrated circuit refers to the integration of analog circuits composed of capacitors, resistors, transistors, etc. to process analog signals Circuit.
There are many types of analog integrated circuits, such as operational amplifiers, analog multipliers, phase-locked loops, and power management chips. The main components of analog integrated circuits are amplifiers, filters, feedback circuits, reference source circuits, switched capacitor circuits, and so on.
Analog integrated circuit design is mainly obtained through manual circuit debugging and simulation by experienced designers. The corresponding digital integrated circuit design is mostly through the use of hardware description language in electronic design automation (EDA) The design, logic synthesis, layout, routing and layout generation are automatically completed with the assistance of software.
System on Chip
System on Chip (English: System on Chip, abbreviation: SoC) It is an integrated circuit that integrates a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. The system chip can process digital signals, analog signals, mixed signals and even higher frequency signals. System chips are often used in embedded systems. The integration scale of the system chip is very large, generally reaching several million gates to tens of millions of gates.
Although microcontrollers usually only have less than 100 kB of random access memory, in fact it is a simple and weak single-chip system, and the term "system chip" is often used Refers to more powerful processors that can run certain versions of Windows and Linux. The stronger function of the system chip requires it to have an external memory chip, for example, some system chips are equipped with flash memory. System chips can often be connected to additional external devices. The system chip puts forward higher requirements on the integration scale of semiconductor devices. In order to better perform more complex tasks, some system chips use multiple processor cores.