There are many ways to classify integrated circuits. According to whether the circuit is analog or digital, it can be divided into: analog integrated circuit, digital integrated circuit and mixed signal integrated circuit (analog and digital on one chip).
Digital integrated circuits can contain anything, from thousands to millions of logic gates, flip-flops, multiplexers and other circuits in a few square millimeters. The small size of these circuits enables higher speed, lower power consumption (see Low Power Design) and lower manufacturing costs compared to board level integration. These digital ICs, represented by microprocessors, digital signal processors and microcontrollers, use binary systems in their work to process 1 and 0 signals.
Analog integrated circuits include sensors, power control circuits, and operational amplifiers, which process analog signals. Complete the functions of amplification, filtering, demodulation, and mixing. By using analog integrated circuits designed by experts with good characteristics, the burden of circuit designers is reduced, and everything is no longer required to be designed from the basic transistors.
Integrated circuits can integrate analog and digital circuits on a single chip to make devices such as analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters. This kind of circuit offers smaller size and lower cost, but must be careful about signal conflicts.