Silicon is an important element of modern electronic devices since it is a component with special properties. Mainly, silicon in the pure form is a semiconductor, that signifies it has properties of both a metal (that runs electricity) and an insulator (that obstructs electricity). By controlling semiconducting silicon, we can control electric signals that are the part of transistors, memory chips, computer CPUs, and all of the electronic devices! Silicon is also a plentiful element in the world, though in nature silicon is usually combined with various other molecules like oxygen (i.e. silica or sand) so manufactured processing is required to purify silicon. But, there are various other components that are regularly used in electronic devices, like germanium, gold, copper, aluminum, magnesium, nickel, cadmium, etc.
silicon has several distinct properties that make it suitable for use in computer chips. Silicon has both “technological” and “scientific” benefits over several products. Scientific benefits are what make Si work with the purpose that we need and technological benefits are what make it affordable and also scalable to big manufacturing centers.
Scientifically, Si is a semiconductor product, that signifies that it’s somewhere in between a strict electric insulator like glass and a strict metal such as copper. One of the most valuable factors of semiconductors is that their level of conductivity can be modified using “dopants”, that are small concentrations of impurity atoms.
On the technical side, silicon can also be made extremely pure at very large size scales. Huge silicon boules as tall as the floor to the ceiling are best crystals with vanishingly few of defects. This is why including impurities can be such a specific process, and help engineers so much control.
The only product that can be produced purer than silicon is germanium. There was a time once it was unclear if Si or Ge would become the platform for the integrated circuit, however, Si won out for a couple more technological and scientific reasons: Si has the ability to grow a stable, insulating oxide (SiO2) while heated very hot in a furnace. This is extremely beneficial for making devices like transistors, that need insulating regions. Also, Si is dead cheap! It’s one of the most popular elements in the World’s crust and is generally isolated from sand.
So basically, silicon is a very pure, simple to use, as well as affordable semiconductor, best for the now huge computer chip industry.