Find out why CPUs are made of sand

CPU is made of sand, so why sand and not another material? We invite you to explore in the article below.

Sometimes, when reading the news, many of you must have heard the phrase “Silicon Valley” – an area in Northern California in the US that gathers many high-tech commercial firms. And I believe you will wonder why it is called Silicon Valley, why the chemical element silicon (English called silicon) is commonly used for electronic devices but not copper. , graphite or something else. To explain this, please find the answer right in the section below.

Silicon itself has some rather special properties. Currently, scientists have discovered 118 elements, but only 6 elements are classified into the “class” of metalloids (metalloid), and silicon is one of them. They are located between metals and nonmetals in the periodic table. It’s not as hard as metal and can be easily “shaped” or broken to form the desired shape. In addition, depending on the environmental conditions, they can have metallic (e.g. conductive) or non-metallic (e.g. electrical insulation) properties, and hence the word “transistor” was born. .

This semiconductor property is extremely important, guys. It is true that computers and electronic devices with chips need electricity to work, but the principle of its operation is to selectively control where current goes from where to, through which parts.

The reason to choose silicon over other metalloids is simply because it is quite cheap and easy to find. Next to oxygen, silicon is the second most abundant chemical element on the Earth’s surface. Sand, especially quartz, is composed of 25% silicon and is in the form of SiO2. This is also the base material for the production of transistors, so the fact that the CPU is made from sand is valid.

In addition, silicon has other benefits, such as that it can function well in a wide range of temperatures, and can combine with other elements to form the compounds needed to make microprocessors. physical.

However, nothing in the world is perfect, and neither is silicon. It’s really useful, but in return it has a limitation in the speed of electricity transmission. Other semiconductors can move electrons faster, making for more efficient (and more expensive) microprocessors. And another limitation is that silicon may not be a common material for chip production in the future. Transistors are getting smaller and smaller to improve performance and save power, but at the same time we’re getting closer to the size limit of silicon. There will come a time when silicon transistors can’t get any smaller, and we have to find a new semiconductor to replace them.

In fact, Intel has been experimenting with cobalt (in English called cobalt). They added cobalt to the 10nm process to reduce the impedance of the microchips connecting the transistors. This method is effective, but the production stage is quite difficult and the productivity is not high. Therefore, Intel is delayed in launching the 10nm process.

Hope the above information will help you discover new things about the world of technology. If you have any suggestions or additions, please share them with us in the comments section below. Thank you for your interest in this article.

Source Techquickie; Intel; ExtremeTech compiles GVN360

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