An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as IC, chip, or microchip) is an electronic circuit

Electronic circuit

An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow...

 manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements

Chemical element

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...

 into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor

Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...

 material. Additional materials are deposited and patterned to form interconnections between semiconductor devices.

Integrated circuits are used in virtually all electronic equipment today and have revolutionized the world of electronics.