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Silicon. face-centered diamond-cubic (cF8) Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium ...
A large number of elements and compounds have semiconducting properties, including: [16] Certain pure elements are found in group 14 of the periodic table; the most commercially important of these elements are silicon and germanium. Silicon and germanium are used here effectively because they have 4 valence electrons in their outermost shell ...
The first transistor was successfully demonstrated on December 23, 1947, at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs was the research arm of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). The three individuals credited with the invention of the transistor were William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain.
Bottom right: completed solar wafers. In electronics, a wafer (also called a slice or substrate) [1] is a thin slice of semiconductor, such as a crystalline silicon (c-Si, silicium), used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture solar cells. The wafer serves as the substrate for microelectronic devices ...
Silicon (14 Si) has 25 known isotopes, with mass numbers ranging from 22 to 46. 28 Si (the most abundant isotope, at 92.23%), 29 Si (4.67%), and 30 Si (3.1%) are stable. The longest-lived radioisotope is 32 Si, which is produced by cosmic ray spallation of argon. Its half-life has been determined to be approximately 150 years (with decay energy ...
Solar cell. A conventional crystalline silicon solar cell (as of 2005). Electrical contacts made from busbars (the larger silver-colored strips) and fingers (the smaller ones) are printed on the silicon wafer. Symbol of a Photovoltaic cell. A solar cell or photovoltaic cell (PV cell) is an electronic device that converts the energy of light ...
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula SiO 2, commonly found in nature as quartz. [5] [6] In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant families of materials, existing as a compound of several minerals and as a synthetic product.
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (/ ˌ k ɑːr b ə ˈ r ʌ n d əm /), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A wide bandgap semiconductor , it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite , but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal since 1893 for use as an abrasive .