Silicon

First discovered by Baron Jons Jackob Berzelius in 1823, silicon (symbol Si, atomic number 14) is a chemical element. It is the fundamental material in making computer chips because of its excellent semi-conducting properties and because of its abundance.

The picture shows an example of a Silicon wafer with well over 100 silicon chips. After this wafer is made, each of the chips are cut out of the wafer.

Chip, Circuit, Dopant, Electronics terms, Processor, Semiconductor, Silicon valley, Silicon wafer, Transistor