What role does quartz play in the functions of the Silicon chip of a computer?

Answer 1

chips require clock/timers which take charge of the various activities. these clocks are made of quartz.

Answer 2

I wonder if your question refers to the fabrication process of microprocessor chips. Quartz is just silicon dioxide, SiO₂. Chip fabrication involves "doping" certain areas with p-type and n-type impurities. In order to prevent certain areas from being doped, the customary solution is to form a protective barrier of SiO₂, which has the property of blocking the diffusion of impurities through it.

This barrier is made by exposing silicon to O₂ gas at high temperature. As a result, quartz is formed. In order to selectively dope an area, quartz is etched away by a photolithographic process.

Quartz has also electrical insulating properties, and this is used as well throughout the chip manufacturing process. Although it's true that quartz has, in addition, piezo-electric properties, which makes quartz an excellent option for building crystal (time-keeping) oscillators around them, as a rule these crystals are too large to be included in the chip, and are customarily left outside as discrete components, to be connected to the microprocessor chips as external parts.

Answer 3

Resonance. The quartz crystal is a mineral with an extremely reliable vibratory rate, something like 14,000 per second. A microchip uses this accuracy as its base reference. A "quartz-watch" out of a "Cracker Jack" box is far more accurate that any watch made with gears... such as Rolex, Bulova, etc...

Answer 4

it's used to make the processor clock (the same way it's used in digital watches)