Related topics: solar cells , transistors , nanowires
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
New memory material may hold data for one billion years
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 20, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (45) |
17
(PhysOrg.com) -- Packing more digital images, music, and other data onto silicon chips in USB drives and smart phones is like squeezing more strawberries into the same size supermarket carton. The denser you ...
First-ever calculation performed on optical quantum computer chip
Sep 03, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (34) |
10
(PhysOrg.com) -- A primitive quantum computer that uses single particles of light (photons) whizzing through a silicon chip has performed its first mathematical calculation. This is the first time a calculation ...
Intel's Light Peak Will Replace Copper Wires
Sep 24, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (34) |
18
(PhysOrg.com) -- At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco Wednesday, the company announced a new optical cable that will be able to transfer data, between electrical devices, starting at speeds of 10 ...
New wonder material, one-atom thick, has scientists abuzz
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jul 13, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (35) |
11
Imagine a carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer chips. That's graphene, the latest wonder material coming out ...
Glitter-sized solar photovoltaics produce competitive results
Dec 22, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (32) |
0
Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used.
Scientists create world's first molecular transistor
Dec 23, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (28) |
2
A group of scientists has succeeded in creating the first transistor made from a single molecule. The team, which includes researchers from Yale University and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology ...
Moore's Law Marches on at Intel
Sep 22, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (30) |
10
Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini today displayed a silicon wafer containing the world's first working chips built on 22nm process technology. The 22nm test circuits include both SRAM memory as well as ...
Innovation puts next-generation solar cells on the horizon
Dec 01, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (30) |
12
In a world first, a Monash University-led international research team has developed an innovative way to boost the output of the next generation of solar cells.
Scientists Discover Light Force with 'Push' Power
Jul 13, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (26) |
10
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Yale University researchers has discovered a "repulsive" light force that can be used to control components on silicon microchips, meaning future nanodevices could be controlled ...
Researchers invent new method for graphene growth
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (23) |
0
(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.
'Most extreme' material: Graphene could be successor to silicon for next generation microchips; 200 times stronger than
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 05, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (22) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a blown-up image from a scanning tunneling microscope, it looks just like an endless sheet of chicken wire: a simple flat sheet made up of a lattice of hexagons. But this nanoscopic material ...
Spin polarization achieved in room temperature silicon
Nov 27, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (21) |
0
(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, ...
Cheaper Solar Power's Time Has Come
Sep 07, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (22) |
18
(PhysOrg.com) -- Solar power manufacturers in the US are cutting prices to shift their stock, the government is chipping in with tax credits, and innovative leasing or financing arrangements spreading payments ...
Scientists make quantum leap in developing faster computers
Mar 19, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (22) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have created a molecular device which could act as a building block for future generations of superfast computers.
Organic flash memory developed
Dec 17, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (20) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a non-volatile memory that has the same basic structure as a flash memory but is made from cheap, flexible, organic materials.
