Inside Every Modern Computer O :: essays research papers

Inside every modern computer or other data-processing wonder is a microprocessor bearing millions of transistors sculpted from atomic number 14 y chemicals and light. Silicon, the second most abundant element onEarth, is used extensively in transistors, integrated circuits, photoelectric devices, and other electronic devices. A exquisite crystal of silicon does not conduct electricity unless traces of other substances ar diffused or doped onto it. Therefore silicon must be manufactured in a specific way in recount for it to yield electrons for a current.      All manufacturing of silicon takes place in a "clean room" which is an area where each one foot pulley block of air must contain fewer than 1000 tiny specks of system and zero humidity. The temperature is maintained at a constant 68 degrees Fahrenheit(postnominal) and all workers have to wear coats, gloves, masks, and overshoes. This is necessary because even one splash particle or water drople t can ruin a muss of hitch production.      The manufacturing of a silicon chip starts when silica, the main component of sand, is change with carbon which makes 98 percent utter(a) silicon. This is and then dissolved in hydrochloric acid. The resulting liquid is fractionally distilled to separate almost all of the impurities.The remaining liquid is then heated in a hydrogen tmosphere, which produces the purest silicon possible. This silicon, however, is in the phase angle of many crystals of different sizes and orientations. This silicon goes through the Czochralski pulled crystalprocess in which it is melted in a large crucible into which a probe, tip with a small set crystal is immersed. Silicon atoms attach themselves to the seed in perfect alignment with its structure while it is rotated and pulled easily upward. The seed grows into a three foot long, cylindrical, single crystal.     Silicon this pure is hard, dark grey in color and lusterous. The giant crystal of silicon is next ground into a perfect cylinder, which is sliced by a diamond-tipped saw into wafers 1 mm thick. Using particles one-tenth of a micrometer wide, the faces of these wafers are polished to give a smooth base onto which up to two hundred dentical chips can simultaneously be photo-etched.     The base of the chip is next doped with small traces of boron. First the silicon base is coat with a layer of insulating silicon dioxide and photoresist, a light-sensitive material. This hardens only where invisible light, projected through a mask, strikes it. The chip is immersed in solvent to washout away the soft resist shielded by the mask.