What Is Silicon? 10 Things You Should Know

I’m not going to say it’s oxygen, but silicon has become a major player in our lives. What exactly is silicon? Before you use that fancy processor to move on to something else, here are 10 things you should know (in highly oversimplified fashion).

 

1

Silicon (Si on the periodic table) has an atomic number of 14, indicating the presence of 14 protons in its nucleus, one more than aluminum and one less than phosphorous. It is one of the ten most common elements in the universe and the second most abundant element in Earth’s crust behind oxygen.

 

2

Silicon is almost always found in conjunction with other elements (i.e. in the form of compounds), meaning that humans have to get involved if pure silicon is desired (see below).

 

3

Silicon-containing compounds often involve a combination with oxygen, and such compounds are known generally as silicates. A specific combination called silicon dioxide, or silica, is particularly plentiful.

 

4

The above compounds comprise materials that are extremely familiar to us. For example, silica is the major component of quartz, which is a key component of sand in much of the world. (That same stuff is used to make glass.) Other silicates make up well-known construction materials such as clay and the ubiquitous Portland cement.

 

5

Repeated inhalation of silica dust has been associated with a lung disease called silicosis, seen most commonly in those who’ve worked in construction and/or mining.

 

6

Silicon is also the basis for silicone (note the extra e), a synthetic polymer containing silicon, oxygen, and other elements such as carbon and hydrogen. Silicone can take on many forms and has a wide variety of uses, with medical implants being just one.

 

7

Of course, none of the above is what has truly made silicon a household name. That honor goes to pure silicon, a metalloid (somewhere between a metal and a nonmetal) that, when specific impurities are intentionally added via a process called doping, can act as a semiconductor, conducting electricity under some circumstances but not others. This property makes it perfectly suited to create transistors, the switches whose on and off states are the physical equivalent of the binary digits (bits) that serve as the basic units of computing—off is 0 and on is 1.

 

8

In order to get pure silicon, the first step is to mix silica with carbon and heat the concoction to very high temperatures. After several subsequent steps, you get a chunk of electronic-grade silicon that can be cut into super-thin wafers (that undergo doping). That’s where the science fiction kicks in (except it’s not fiction). On the wafers are created integrated circuits with the all-important transistors that govern the behavior of those circuits (based on the input of 0s and 1s). The transistors are microscopic, allowing for billions to be present, explaining the powerful microprocessors that define our modern world.

 

9

At some point, the number of transistors that can be placed on a silicon wafer may be limited by the laws of physics, meaning that gains in processing capabilities could stall. As such, some very smart people are looking for the next frontier in computing, one that could theoretically relegate our relationship with the element back to just sand.

 

10

Silicon is arguably most recognizable thanks to Silicon Valley, the term used for the geographic region south of San Francisco known for its abundance of high-tech companies, some of which are valued pretty highly. While the region’s success is clearly fueled by the properties of the substance, much of the world’s silicon production actually takes place in China. The term was apparently popularized in 1971 by a series of articles in the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News and has inspired similar nicknames for high-tech regions across the world, including the Silicon Valley of India (Bangalore) and Chilecon Valley (Santiago, Chile).

 

I’d like to end by giving a personalized shoutout to the humble element that has allowed for my blogger lifestyle to even be a thing. I have learned, however, that blogger income is far more compatible with upstate New York than Silicon Valley.