Semiconductors power the heart of modern technology, quietly keeping satellites in space and delivering 5G to your smartphone. They’re made from remarkable materials that are neither fully insulating nor fully conductive. Semiconductors have enabled our massive technological advances ever since they were first used in 1948. The semiconductor industry has become one of the largest and most important industries in the world. Whether you’re driving a car, streaming a movie, or undergoing a medical scan, there’s a semiconductor at work making it all possible. Read on for a fascinating collection of facts that will introduce you to the incredible power of these tiny but influential materials.
10 Semiconductor Facts
1. Semiconductors are made of materials that are both good and poor electrical conductors. (Source)
The conductivity is controlled by adding small amounts of other elements. The number of elements used in semiconductor manufacturing has grown dramatically, but the first devices were made with germanium before silicon became the dominant choice.
2. Semiconductor materials form microchips that power most of our electronic devices. (Source)
Each chip contains a network of electronic circuits, with millions or billions of components that control electrical energy. These microchips have revolutionized electronics.
3. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain created the first transistor, making major strides in semiconductor technology. (Source)
Created at AT&T Bell Labs, the point-contact transistor led to the solid-junction transistor, which in turn led to integrated circuits that pack many transistors into a small chip.
4. All chips start with highly purified silicon wafers. (Source)
It can take up to 500 steps to develop a wafer. The process includes etching, stripping, and cleaning, which can be repeated to create the desired pattern.
5. Three industries drive 70% of the semiconductor industry’s growth. (Source)
These industries are wireless, automotive, and computation and data storage. Computation and data storage are the biggest drivers of these three.
6. Williamson County, Texas, is the leading location for semiconductor manufacturing. (Source)
After Samsung made a $17 billion investment in the area to build a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Taylor, this county became the nation’s leading location for semiconductor manufacturing.
7. Thanks to semiconductors, today’s smartphones are over 100,000 times more powerful than the computers NASA used in the Apollo 11 mission. (Source)
This might sound unlikely, but these advances are largely due to advances in semiconductor technology.
8. Silicon is still the leading choice of element in semiconductor manufacturing. (Source)
Silicon is stable, abundant, and inexpensive, so it’s ideal for the mass production of semiconductors.
9. The line width of semiconductor circuits is thinner than the gap between neurons. (Source)
This is around 20 nanometers. As technology advances, semiconductors continue to shrink, enhancing their performance. There are chips with single-digit line widths.
10. A semiconductor cleanroom is 32,000 times cleaner than an operating room. (Source)
Microchips are extremely sensitive to contamination. If you work in a cleanroom, you’ll be gowned and working in a dust-free environment.
Featured image photo credit: Sergei Starostin
