silicon is a chief ingredient of both glass and semiconductor devices,?

Question

yet the physical properties of glass are different from these of semiconductor devices. why is this so? will you please explain it for me.. thank you...

Answer 1

It's all about the processing...



What you'll find in many cases of materials engineering is it's not what you make, but how you make it. Silicon semiconductors are usually fairly pure (if not completely pure) Silicon, which is a natural semi-conducting device because of its intrinsic electron configuration. I won't get into detail on why it's a semi-conductor, just know that in its natural state, Silicon (Si) has 4 valence electrons that can participate in conduction if given the right amount of initial energy (hence it's semi-conducting unlikle metals, which conduct all the time).



Silicon glass, which is actually SiO2 glass (usually with considerably more additions) is processed very differently. Glass is made by mixing raw materials (generally as powders) and then heating until the mixture is throughly melted. The melt is then cooled at a rate, which is fast enough to prevent the atoms from lining up in thier natural way. Scientifically we'd say the cooling rate must be sufficient that the thermodynamic forces of cooling counter the kenetic force of the atoms trying to align in a crystal structure. This means the cooled glass has a much different atomic structure from it's crystalline counterpart. Because of this, those electrons in Silicon are no longer available for energy absorption and the glass is not only an electrical insulator but is transparent.



At the end of the day, most all physical/mechanical properties are determined by bonding and the resulting electron configurations. Because crystalline Si and non-crystalline (amorphous) SiO2 have significantly different bonding/ electron configurations, their mechanical, optical, and electrical properties are much different

Answer 2

Both glass and pure silicone are good insulators. The crystalline structure of pure silicone can be intentionally "doped" with impurities to give it specific electrical characteristics. For instance, when the pure silicone is doped with phosphorus, the electron density of the crystal is increased - the phosphorus atoms becomes part of the lattice structure of the crystal and, due to the excess of electrons, the material now becomes an N type semiconductor. On the other hand, if boron is added to the pure silicone, it creates areas of electron deficiencies - and the material becomes a P type semiconductor. If the two materials are joined, a voltage potential of approximately 0.6 volts will be necessary to conduct current through the junction due to the doped potentials introduced into the materials - and this DC current will only flow in one direction due to the junction becoming wider (because the electrons and "holes" are pulled away from the junction) if the current is reversed, making this an excellent rectifier or diode. The same principal is used in transistors, diodes, integrated circuits and many other solid state devices.

Answer 3

Si is a semiconductor, one of a number of elemental semiconductors. Pure Si, doped with minor amounts of other elements, is used to build transistors and other electronic devices to fabricate integrated circuits (IC chips). Si forms compounds with other atoms, ex O, which are found in lots of different materials. SiO2 is one constituent of glass (and there are different types of glass), pure SiO2 is sapphire. The physical and chemical properties of matter depend on the types of atoms they are made of and the arrangement of atoms (crystal structure). The classic example is carbon, both diamonds and graphite are pure C but they have very different chemical and physical properties because they hve different crystal structures.

Answer 4

In glass, one silicon atom is chemically bonded with two oxygen atoms, forming SiO2, which is a poor conductor of electricity. Semiconductors, however, use pure silicon, "doped" with other elements, such as germanium, to form semiconductors.

Answer 5

as far as i know silicon oxide is used to prepare glass. but it depends upon the type of glass you are making. for different colour different compounds are added. for green chromium is added

most of the semiconductors are made up of silicon and germanium.these silicon materials are doped with other impurities to make semiconductor material and then it can be used.

Answer 6

silicon is an excellent insulator. when making silicon wafers in the process of manufacturing integrated circuits. They "dope" the silicon with conductive metals such as germanium. then they use an optical process to mark and retain the conductor. then an etching process is used to remove the remaining conductor, leaving the integrated circuit on the wafer.

Answer 7

Semi conductors are made with the pure metal silicon.

Glass is made with silicon dioxide (quartz or sand) and is an amorphous mix of various other oxides including potassium or sodium and calcium (pot ash or soda ash and limestone as starters)

Answer 8

Silicom is an insulator, but with some impurities that you put inside is a semiconductor.