how do silicon chips work?

Question

how do they process information

Answer 1

Silicon chips are small rectangles of Silicon, typically up to about 4 or 5 square cm in area at the moment. The maximum [economic] size of chips has been steadily rising, for reasons we will consider later. There are many ways in which we can make Silicon chips: in some, the Silicon itself simply acts as a base on which the chip is built; but in most it plays some part in the electrical operation of the device. The chip is made up of a number of layers built-up on one side of the Silicon rectangle. The lower layers interact to form the active components - usually transistors. The upper layers form the passive components - usually wires. Around the edges of the chip, are pads: [relatively] large areas of metal, used to connect to the outside world. As the size of chips has steadily grown, so the size of the features that make up their layers has fallen. Currently, the minimum feature size for commercial chips is 0.1 to 0.2 microns. Typically, for microprocessor-type chips, we can fit (at the moment) up to 300 million transistors on a chip - though most current processors have significantly fewer. For comparison, a simple logic gate can be constructed with from 2 to 10 transistors; a simple memory circuit with from 1 to 12 transistors. Clearly, 300 million transistors allows us considerable scope: we expect this figure to have risen to over 500 million by 2004, and nearly a billion not long after.

how they work
Pure Silicon is an insulator which is not especially useful. However, if we add certain elements (technically, impurities) to Silicon - a process known as doping - we can increase the number of free charge carriers - charged particles that are free to move about within the Silicon, and are hence able to carry an electrical current. The result of this is that Silicon becomes progressively more conductive (i.e. becomes a semiconductor) the more impurity is added. The type of impurity affects the type of charge carrier. Some doping impurities generate free electrons - negative charge carriers. Such doped Silicon is called n-Type. Others generate holes - spaces where electrons should be. Although not strictly 'particles' these holes behave like positive charge carriers.

The current dominant Silicon technology is CMOS - complementary metal oxide semiconductor. Originally, CMOS was mainly a low-power technology, used for devices like digital watches and calculators - not computers, because it was too slow. However, considerable work went into developing it because of its recognised potential. To explain how a CMOS transistor works, consider a piece of p-Type Silicon with a layer of insulator and a conducting plate. Now apply a positive charge to the plate. Most of the charge carriers in the p-Type Silicon are holes, but there will still be significant number of electrons - the minority charge carriers. The positive charge on the conducting plate will repel the holes and attract the electrons - forming a negatively charged region beneath the plate.
If we now embed two n-Type regions within the p-Type Silicon, on either side of the conducting plate, the negatively-charged region acts as a conducting path provided the positive charge is present. When the charge is removed, the negatively charged region will disperse and the conducting path will be broken. This is essentially how an n-Type transistor operates

Answer 2

Pure Silicon is an insulator which is not especially useful. However, if we add certain elements (technically, impurities) to Silicon - a process known as doping - we can increase the number of free charge carriers - charged particles that are free to move about within the Silicon, and are hence able to carry an electrical current. The result of this is that Silicon becomes progressively more conductive (i.e. becomes a semiconductor) the more impurity is added. The type of impurity affects the type of charge carrier. Some doping impurities generate free electrons - negative charge carriers. Such doped Silicon is called n-Type. Others generate holes - spaces where electrons should be. Although not strictly 'particles' these holes behave like positive charge carriers.

The current dominant Silicon technology is CMOS - complementary metal oxide semiconductor. Originally, CMOS was mainly a low-power technology, used for devices like digital watches and calculators - not computers, because it was too slow. However, considerable work went into developing it because of its recognised potential. To explain how a CMOS transistor works, consider a piece of p-Type Silicon with a layer of insulator and a conducting plate. Now apply a positive charge to the plate. Most of the charge carriers in the p-Type Silicon are holes, but there will still be significant number of electrons - the minority charge carriers. The positive charge on the conducting plate will repel the holes and attract the electrons - forming a negatively charged region beneath the plate.

Answer 3

How Do Silicon Chips Work

Answer 4

Early silicon purification techniques were based on the fact that if silicon is melted and re-solidified, the last parts of the mass to solidify contain most of the impurities. The earliest method of silicon purification, first described in 1919 and used on a limited basis to make radar components during World War II, involved crushing metallurgical grade silicon and then partially dissolving the silicon powder in an acid. When crushed, the silicon cracked so that the weaker impurity-rich regions were on the outside of the resulting grains of silicon. As a result, the impurity-rich silicon was the first to be dissolved when treated with acid, leaving behind a more pure product.

In zone melting, also called zone refining, the first silicon purification method to be widely used industrially, rods of metallurgical grade silicon are heated to melt at one end. Then, the heater is slowly moved down the length of the rod, keeping a small length of the rod molten as the silicon cools and re-solidifies behind it. Since most impurities tend to remain in the molten region rather than re-solidify, when the process is complete, most of the impurities in the rod will have been moved into the end that was the last to be melted. This end is then cut off and discarded, and the process repeated if a still higher purity was desired

Liquified, solidified and programmed by algorithms and other code to do specific tasks with lasers i believe.

Answer 5

Silicon, no longer silicone dweeb! Silicon in the living house; TVs, Stereos, more recent autos, treadmills, satellite tv for pc controllers, warmers, air conditioners, distant controllers, present day refridgerators, present day stoves, microwave ovens, smoke detectors,

Answer 6

TOO complex to answer here!!!!! They are basically switches which are 'on' or 'off' (allowing current flow or denying current flow). Pack several hundreds or thousands of these electronic switches in one device and you have a 'chip' or IC (Integrated Circuit). Can't think of a simpler way to explain it!

Answer 7

They a layers of circuits seperated by silicon that use on/off ie. binery codes

Answer 8

are they fried or oven ones?