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How Microchips Work

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Re: How Microchips Work

#11

Post by kken »

stavros wrote: post #9
kken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon oxide grown on Si is actually amorphous, so it is not lattice matched. But you are complety right, the oxidation properties of Si are really fortunate and ICs would have taken decades longer if it were not for that. SiO2 is really the unsung hero of the silicon age. - SiO2 has a high bandgap and a very good insulator. - It is quite inert to many chemical and gasses. (e.g. germanium oxide is soluble in water,…

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

It's as if someone created one element that is perfectly suited to build microelectronics. Sure, there are other materials that improve on one property or the other, but there is not a single other element which balances properties as well as silicon.

Not even mentioned yet:

- Excellent mechanical properties of the single crystal (think MEMS, or wafers that don't break all the time)

- Piezoresistive properties can be used to measure strain (also quite unique due to silicon band structure)

- Optical properties perfectly suited to detect visible light (think detectors, image sensors). Good combination of band gap and carrier lifetime to build solar cells.

Re: How Microchips Work

#12

Post by amelius »

stavros wrote: post #9
kken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon oxide grown on Si is actually amorphous, so it is not lattice matched. But you are complety right, the oxidation properties of Si are really fortunate and ICs would have taken decades longer if it were not for that. SiO2 is really the unsung hero of the silicon age. - SiO2 has a high bandgap and a very good insulator. - It is quite inert to many chemical and gasses. (e.g. germanium oxide is soluble in water,…

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

A fully optical computer would be better still.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_computing

Re: How Microchips Work

#13

Post by eternauta3k »

stavros wrote: post #9
kken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon oxide grown on Si is actually amorphous, so it is not lattice matched. But you are complety right, the oxidation properties of Si are really fortunate and ICs would have taken decades longer if it were not for that. SiO2 is really the unsung hero of the silicon age. - SiO2 has a high bandgap and a very good insulator. - It is quite inert to many chemical and gasses. (e.g. germanium oxide is soluble in water,…

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

It took ages from the theoretical invention of the MOS transistor to us being able to grow practically good enough oxides (which aren't riddled with interface traps)...

Re: How Microchips Work

#14

Post by stavros »

eternauta3k wrote: post #13
stavros wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

It took ages from the theoretical invention of the MOS transistor to us being able to grow practically good enough oxides (which aren't riddled with interface traps)...

Imagine how long it would have taken if silicon wasn't this ideal.

Re: How Microchips Work

#15

Post by xg15 »

From the "Overview" page:

> Microchips – also referred to as integrated circuits – are considered to be among the greatest technological achievements of the last century. Their invention has paved the way for a digital revolution that keeps changing the world to the present day.

...

> The ENIAC computer from 1946 had over 17.000 vacuum tubes and suffered a tube failure on average every two days, which was time-consuming to troubleshoot and repair. With the invention of the transistor in 1947 by Bell Labs, the components became significantly smaller, but the transistors were still wired together individually. This reduced power consumption of those computers and their overall size, but not their wiring complexity. It was not before the invention of integrated circuits before computers became way more efficient and easier to operate and maintain.

I find it on some level hilarious that one of the fundamental breakthroughs that allowed the technological revolution pick up speed and perception-wise cross the barrier from "sophisticated machinery" to "magic" was, in some sense, proper cable management.

Re: How Microchips Work

#16

Post by kken »

eternauta3k wrote: post #13
stavros wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

It took ages from the theoretical invention of the MOS transistor to us being able to grow practically good enough oxides (which aren't riddled with interface traps)...

More like a decade, unless you refer to the Lilienfeld devices.

Re: How Microchips Work

#17

Post by gshubert17 »

Just before the section on Moore's Law, it says this about silicon purity:

> Electronic grade silicon (EG-Si): 99.9999999 pure ('nine nines pure') Thats one impurity atom in every 10.000.000 silicon atoms.

I believe that should be 1.000.000.000 (10^9 atoms) to correspond to nine nines pure. Just as one impurity atom in every 100 (10^2) atoms would be 99% (two nines) pure.

Re: How Microchips Work

#18

Post by jpm_sd »

xg15 wrote: post #15

From the "Overview" page: > Microchips – also referred to as integrated circuits – are considered to be among the greatest technological achievements of the last century. Their invention has paved the way for a digital revolution that keeps changing the world to the present day. ... > The ENIAC computer from 1946 had over 17.000 vacuum tubes and suffered a tube failure on average every two days, which was time-consum…

It's really /elimination/ of cable management. Essentially the same thing that makes printed circuit boards superior to wire wrapping. Turned a manual labor process into a (photo)lithographic process. Not that different from the replacement of hand-lettered manuscripts with the output of a printing press!

In larger electronic and electromechanical systems, cables and connectors ("harnessing", collectively) are still major weak points.

Re: How Microchips Work

#19

Post by namaria »

stavros wrote: post #9
kken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon oxide grown on Si is actually amorphous, so it is not lattice matched. But you are complety right, the oxidation properties of Si are really fortunate and ICs would have taken decades longer if it were not for that. SiO2 is really the unsung hero of the silicon age. - SiO2 has a high bandgap and a very good insulator. - It is quite inert to many chemical and gasses. (e.g. germanium oxide is soluble in water,…

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

The universe is such that the computers that do exist seem perfectly matched to its properties. How could it not be so? Other possible universes might have completely different computers and the kind we have here would be unimaginable there.

Re: How Microchips Work

#20

Post by stavros »

namaria wrote: post #19
stavros wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, it's as if the universe was built to make computers out of.

The universe is such that the computers that do exist seem perfectly matched to its properties. How could it not be so? Other possible universes might have completely different computers and the kind we have here would be unimaginable there.

If silicon didn't exist, our computers wouldn't seem perfectly matched. It would be a struggle to make them and keep them working.
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