4 ms·
Chemical scarcity should be in your list, and it is the reason silicon will remain for years to come, at least in electric domains.
by omgJustTest 6y ago
Chemical scarcity should be in your list, and it is the reason silicon will remain for years to come, at least in electric domains.
- retrac 6y agoYep. I tried to ballpark the amount of polysilicon used to actually make ICs. Somewhere between 100,000 and 10 million tonnes a year, I figure. Those little dies are only 100 mg or so but we print them by the billions. Whether the real number is more to the high or low end of that, it's hopeless. As Wikipedia says "About 118 tonnes of germanium was produced in 2011 worldwide."
- fuzzfactor 6y agoIt can require very pure materials to make conductors and semiconductors or they won't act right. And it can take kilos of 99 percent pure raw material to end up with a few grams of 99.999 or better. Silicon was already available in rail cars having 99+ percent purity for steelmaking.