VLSI Technology and applications in Instrumentation

VLSI - It is an acronym of Very Large Scale Integration and integration means the entire circuitry that is, the active and passive elements like diodes, BJT, MOSFET, resistors and capacitors everything is mounted on the same substrate and available as a single IC. This reduces the complexity and increases the accuracy of any system. 

The level of integration is measured by number of transistors on a single chip. According to Moore's law no. of transistors doubles every 18 months.  Therefore, the need of VLSI technology.  

VLSI chip has 4 million transistors mounted in the small chip. So, depending on the complexity of the circuitry, we call it LSI (Large Scale Integration) or MSI (Medium  Scale Integration) or VLSI.

The advantages of integration of different circuits on a single chip are:

1. Compactness

2. Low power Consumption

3. High accuracy obtained when operated at system level

4. High reliability

5. Low  cost

6. Improved performance

In VLSI technology BJT and MOSFET are mostly used. BJTs are used in high speed application and MOSFETs are used in applications which require very high packing density (i.e. when space is a constraint and speed is not).