Chips, compute and data centres
Semiconductor
In short
A semiconductor is a material that can act as a conductor or an insulator of electricity, depending on small changes in voltage. Silicon is the semiconductor behind many of the circuits in phones and computers.
- Also called
- Semiconductor material, Chip material
- Topic
- Chips, compute and data centres
- Level
- Beginner
- First described
- John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain, at Bell Telephone Laboratories, described the device in a letter dated 25 June 1948, published in Physical Review as "The Transistor, A Semi-Conductor Triode". It uses a semiconductor as its basic element and can amplify a signal2.
A semiconductor is the material, and a chip is the packaged part. NIST describes a semiconductor as a material that can act as a conductor or an insulator of electricity, depending on small changes in voltage. Silicon is the semiconductor it names as the basis for many circuits. A transistor made from a semiconductor is a simple switch that turns on or off as the voltage changes, and transistors combine into more complex devices1.
The circuits are built on a wafer, a thin piece of semiconductor such as silicon. Lithography etches into that wafer or builds on its surface to pattern them. An integrated circuit joins anywhere from several transistors to billions. The chip packages the surface and the circuit for electronics such as phones or computers, and a fab is the plant where raw silicon wafers become working chips. NIST's example puts thousands of circuits, and more than a trillion transistors, on one wafer1.
The same material can amplify a signal. On 25 June 1948, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Telephone Laboratories described a three-electrode device that uses a semiconductor as its basic element. Built on germanium, it produced power gains of more than 20 decibels and ran as an amplifier at up to 10 million cycles a second. They had found the effect in silicon as well2.
Example
A phone or a computer uses packaged chips. Each chip holds an integrated circuit patterned on a semiconductor surface, often silicon, and that circuit can contain from several transistors to billions1.
Why it matters
Phones and computers depend on these packaged circuits, and one circuit can hold from several transistors to billions of them. That is why wafers, lithography and chip factories sit under everyday electronics1.
Questions people ask
Is a semiconductor the same as a chip?
No. A semiconductor is the material. A chip is a self-contained piece that includes the semiconductor surface and an integrated circuit, packaged for electronics such as phones or computers1.
Why is silicon used for semiconductors?
NIST describes silicon as the semiconductor material that serves as the basis for many circuits in industry. The 1948 transistor letter also records the effect in silicon as well as germanium12.
Are semiconductors only used for AI?
No. NIST presents the chip as a packaged part for electronics such as mobile phones and computers, and the transistor as a switch that combines into complex devices1.