1. Give synonyms to:

receive, comprise, rapid, state, execute, quest, sacrifice, few, control, command, adaptive.

2. Give antonyms to:

complete, high, definite, same, non-interacting, input, find, microinstruction, receive, peripheral.

3. Match the words with their definitions.

versatility be made up of.

consist changeability.

sequential carry out.

execute give orders or directions.

instruct following in order, time or place.

device be composed of.

comprise gadget, project, scheme.

5. Form nouns by using suffixes.

perform, begin, execute, construct, invent, depend, write, free, type, active, move, kind.

6. Make up sentences with these expressions.

deal with, a quest for

to realize sth in case

find use in based on

lead to sth intend to do sth

UNIT 7

Read and translate the text, reproduce it orally.

Two basic trends are predominant today in the field of microelectronics: one is toward further microminiaturization using improved techniques for the fabrication of each element of the integrated circuit on the chip as a discrete element; the other is toward employing the physical effects in the volume of semiconductors and harnessing these effects to perform the desired functions. The latter trend received the name functional microelectronics.

At present the packing density of LSI circuits comes to nearly 10⁸ elements per chip. A further increase in the scale of integration is likely to continue since the potentialities of electron beam photolithography, plasma etching, and ion implantation will not be exhausted soon. It is the physical factors that impose limits on the scale of integration. Of these, the factor responsible for complications of heat removal is the most serious one. As the size of microcircuits decreases and the scale of integration grows, the problem of heat removal becomes more difficult. In an effort to reduce the heat dissipation in the chip, the design engineer can decrease the power consumption, but only to a certain lower limit at which the circuit must operate properly. The result is a lower packing density. What complicates the problem of heat removal is the fact that with a decrease in the size of a microcircuit, the resistance of conductors grows, so the circuit dissipates more power.

The phenomenon of ion migration in film conductors at high current densities also places a limitation on the packing density and reduces the reliability of circuits.

Besides, radio equipment using many LSI circuits requires multiple redundancy to ensure its high reliability. This leads to a high increase in the number of circuit elements in the device. Integrated electronics today in essence faces the same problems as those which spurred its development at the beginning: the problems of dispensing with the “dominance” of components, simplifying interconnection patterns, and improving the reliability.

The only way to solve the problems is to abandon the classical concept of component-based circuitry design and evolve the devices that would use the properties of solids to perform the functions of, say, a generator, amplifier, etc. in the system. Some devices of this type, called functional units, are already known in practice. A distinguishing feature of these devices is that they have no discernible circuit elements equivalent to the elements in a conventional circuit. The swing to the new trend still proceeds slowly. But there is reason to believe that further progress in microelectronics can be made precisely through the use of functional units.

A search for the ways of evolving functional systems based on the direct utilization of physical phenomena has led to the appearance of new branches of radioelectronics. These are optoelectronics, acoustoelectronics, cryoelectronics, magnetoelectronics, molectronics, and thermoelectronics.

Exercises