The creation of this book was triggered by the request that the author got several years ago to give a presentation on integrated circuits (chips) for a non-technical audience. It is therefore targeted at anybody who is curious about chips: from individuals with only a little to almost no technical background to professional engineers working in one of the semiconductor disciplines. The unique structure of the book makes it both a ‘musthave’ as well as a ‘wannahave’ for every person interested in semiconductors. It contains two parts. PART1 is particularly developed for those who work in non-technical disciplines of semiconductors: management, marketing and sales, software development and others with limited technical background in integrated circuits, but need an understanding of their complexity, their operation, their possibilities and limitations to better communicate with their technical contacts in the field. It discusses the background of integrated circuits and presents a flavour of the various steps to design and fabricate a chip. PART2 presents a deeper insight into the various microelectronics disciplines that are required to develop a completely functional chip. Besides discussions on analog, digital, memory and interface circuits, it also treats the basics of chip performance, yield, testing, failure analysis and packaging. It concludes with a chapter on the road blocks for further scaling and presents alternatives on what’s next. This part is written in an explanatory format, which makes it perfectly suited for engineers working in one of the semiconductor disciplines who want to broaden their semiconductor horizon. Much of it is also digestible by people with only little technical background. An extensive table of contents can be found here. Carefully structured and enriched by hundreds of colour figures and photographs makes this hardbound book a pleasure to read as well as a treasure to have. 

A one-day course “Bits on Chips” is also available based on the contents of this book.