



Silicon ingot, unknown maker, 1978-1980.
One of the many uses of silicon is as the base material for microchips. Silicon is a natural semiconductor with properties that make it good for producing tiny transistors, which are the key components of microprocessors. Microprochips hold many hundreds of transistors on a tiny piece of silicon. The silicon is purified, melted and cooled to form an ingot like this, then sliced into thin wafers ready to be turned into microchips.
On display
Science Museum: Information Age Gallery: Cell
If you are visiting to see this object, please contact us in advance to make sure that it will be on display.
Details
- Category:
- Computing & Data Processing
- Object Number:
- 2006-150
- type:
- ingot
- taxonomy:
-
- inorganic material
- metal
Cite this page
Rights
We encourage the use and reuse of our collection data.
Data in the title, made, maker and details fields are released under Creative Commons Zero
Descriptions and all other text content are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence
Download
Download catalogue entry as json
View manifest in IIIF viewer
Add to Animal Crossing Art Generator
Download manifest IIIF
Our records are constantly being enhanced and improved, but please note that we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information shown on this website.