Silicon
hideSilicon (pronounced /ˈsɪlɨkən/ or /ˈsɪlɨkɒn/, Latin: silicium) is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon. As the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, silicon very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature, but is more widely distributed in dusts, planetoids and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. On Earth, silicon is the second most abundant element (after oxygen) in the crust, making up 25.7% of the crust by mass.
Silicon has many industrial uses. It is the principal component of most semiconductor devices, most importantly integrated circuits or microchips. Silicon is widely used in semiconductors because it remains a semiconductor at higher temperatures than the semiconductor germanium and because its native oxide is easily grown in a furnace and forms a better semiconductor/dielectric interface than any other material.
In the form of silica and silicates, silicon forms useful glasses, cements, and ceramics. It is also a constituent of silicones, a class-name for various synthetic plastic substances made of silicon, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, often confused with silicon itself.
Silicon is an essential element in biology, although only tiny traces of it appear to be required by animals. It is much more important to the metabolism of plants, particularly many grasses, and silicic acid (a type of silica) forms the basis of the striking array of protective shells of the microscopic diatoms.
For more information about Silicon, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with silicon
Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics
Nov 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers ...
Spin polarization achieved in room temperature silicon
Nov 27, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A group in The Netherlands has achieved a first: injection of spin-polarized electrons in silicon at room temperature. This has previously been observed only at extremely low temperatures, ...
Water droplets direct self-assembly process in thin-film materials
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 23, 2009 |
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You can think of it as origami - very high-tech origami. Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a technique for fabricating three-dimensional, single-crystalline silicon structures from thin films by coupling ...
Small optical force can budge nanoscale objects
Nov 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineering researchers have used a very tiny beam of light with as little as 1 milliwatt of power to move a silicon structure up to 12 nanometers.
Close-up movie shows hidden details in the birth of super-suns (w/ Video)
Nov 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The constellation of Orion is a hotbed of massive star formation, most prominently in the Great Nebula that sits in Orion's sword. The glowing gas of the Nebula is powered by a group of young ...
Porphyrin Dimers Increase Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Oct 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Porphyrins are most commonly thought of as the pigment in red blood cells, but now scientists have found that porphyrins can also be used to increase the efficiency of an inexpensive type ...
IBM scientists create rapid disease diagnostic chip (w/ Video)
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Nov 19, 2009 |
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IBM scientists have created a one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test, based on an innovative silicon chip, that requires less sample volume, is significantly faster, portable, easy to use, and can test for ...
New 'finFETs' promising for smaller transistors, more powerful chips
Nov 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Purdue University researchers are making progress in developing a new type of transistor that uses a finlike structure instead of the conventional flat design, possibly enabling engineers ...
Argonne 'homegrown' hybrid solar cell aims for low-cost power
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (12) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have refined a technique to manufacture solar cells by creating tubes of semiconducting material and then "growing" ...
Research helps overcome barrier for organic electronics
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Electronic devices can't work well unless all of the transistors, or switches, within them allow electrical current to flow easily when they are turned on. A team of engineers has determined ...
Senators press EU to speed its Oracle-Sun probe
Nov 24, 2009 |
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(AP) -- U.S. senators are pressuring European antitrust regulators to hurry their investigation of Oracle Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc., citing Sun's "precarious" financial condition and fears about ...
Researchers invent new method for graphene growth
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (22) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A Cornell research team has invented a simple way to make graphene electrical devices by growing the graphene directly onto a silicon wafer.
Researchers create 'fly paper' to capture circulating cancer cells
Nov 18, 2009 |
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Just as fly paper captures insects, an innovative new device with nano-sized features developed by researchers at UCLA is able to grab cancer cells in the blood that have broken off from a tumor.
Sezmi offers a new kind of TV service
Nov 17, 2009 |
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Sezmi, a Silicon Valley startup that's pioneering a new type of TV service, is opening up a public test of its system Monday in California.
Compressing photonic signals for greater bandwidth
Nov 03, 2009 |
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Cornell researchers have developed an ingenious method to time-compress optical signals. The process could enable optical communication systems to carry many more bits per second or could also be used to generate ...
