Question

Explain why the production of Microchips has increased in the recent times.Use facts and figures to justify your answer.For each Reason give me a citation.

Answer 1

It starts with, of all things, sand. Normally, you’d want to keep sand far away from your electronics, particularly your phone. However, sand is one of the main components of silicon. Silicon is one of the most common elements on Earth, with about 28% (by mass) of the crust being composed of it. It’s also a semiconductor, meaning it conducts electricity under certain conditions. This makes it vital for integrated circuits, especially microchips.

The silicon must be processed before it can be used, however. It reaches 99.999% purity (also called “five 9s”) through chemical processes. Heat is used to create a purified silicon melt before it’s grown into a monocrystalline ingot. These ingots are massive, measuring up to seven feet in length and weighing 1,000 pounds. The ingots are sliced into super-thin wafers, less than 10 human hairs thick. However, the diameter of the wafers can range anywhere from four to eighteen inches. The wafers are then polished until they’re smooth and mirrored.

The wafer then undergoes a complex process, so the chip design can be transferred onto the wafer. Photolithography is used to project each of the thousands of layers onto the wafer. Each layer of the chip is electrically connected to the next with billions of transistors, and each circuit pattern is unique. A DUV (deep ultraviolet) light source is used to make the etching, much like the exposure step in photography (hence the name).