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Silicon chips and integrated circuits

Silicon chips and integrated circuits

In 1947, researchers John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain demonstrated that the flow of electricity through silicon could be selectively controlled.


The subsequent creation of silicon chips, integrated circuits, and microprocessors enable today's high-speed, efficient computers. Silicon chips (1961) consist of transistors, resistors, capacitors, and memory chips built in layers on silicon wafers, then exposed to a multi-step chemical process.

Silicon chips are manufactured in highly sterile laboratories.

The silicon wafers are put in an immersion bath filled with process chemicals.

In addition to a sterile environment, silicon-chip production requires ultra clean chemicals.

In 1967, the first hand-held calculator is made using an integrated circuit, a small electronic device containing many transistors and other electronic components. In the 1980s, integrated circuits are applied to computers.

Did you know?

Produced in 1967, the first pocket calculator was made with using a integrated circuit, an electronic equipment containing several transistors and other electronic components. In the 1980s, computers also contained integrated circuits.

Parts of a silicon chip, enlarged to the size of an atom