So far we have only considered passive circuit elements. Now we will consider our first reactive circuit element, the diode. Hopefully things will start to get a little more interesting.
Along with the diode there is the transistor, which will be discussed in future lectures. These circuit elements are commonly made from a semiconductor basic material. Semiconductors along with the passive circuit elements are often integrated onto a single electronics chip. If a hundred or so transistors are on a chip it is referred to as an integrated circuit or IC. Large-scale integrated circuits, LSI, contain thousands of transistors. And today even very-large-scale integrated circuits, VLSI, exist, with hundreds of thousands of transistors.
Now lets talk physics.