Basics of Microchips
What is a microchip?
A microchip is an integrated circuit(small wafer) made of semiconductor material with integrated circuitry. They have microscopic electric components such as transistors, diodes, capacitors, and resistors.
What is a transistor?
The transistor is the most important part of a microchip.
What are memory chips?
Memory chips have the job of storing data.
Who invented the the microchip?
The origin of the circuit came when William B. Shockley and his team invented the transistor in 1947. Later, in 1958, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce thought of a way to reduce circuit size even more.
How do you recycle and reuse microchips?
If you need to throw away microchips, recycling could be a better option. Microchips in landfills are bad because they can give off chemicals that are bad for the environment. Microchips are a big waste of money to throw out because there are some rare metals used in them. When microchips are recycled, they can be turned into newer and better microchips and can also be turned into tools.
What are microchips used for?
Microchips are used in many modern electronic devices, like cars, toasters, phones, and even amusement park rides.
What does a transistor do?
The transistor works like a switch. It implements binary, which is the only thing the computer can understand.
What are application-specific microchips?
An application-specific microchip is not reconfigurable, because it performs only one specific function.
What is used to create a microchip?
Microchips are made of active components, like transistors and diodes, and passive components, such as resistors and capacitors. They are also made of semiconductors, like silicone and germanium. They have conducting materials such as copper or aluminium, or even gold.
Why are precious metals used in microchips?
Precious metals are used to give an electrically conducting coating.
Why are microchips important?
Microchips are important because they revolutionized the electronics industry, and cleared the way for many devices such as phones, televisions, computers, and more. Chips brought advanced electronics to many parts of the world.
What does the binary do?
The computer uses the binary to do math and calculations
What are radio-frequency microchips?
Radio-frequency microchips are commonly used in phones and other wireless devices. They are analog circuits that are in the frequency range of 3,000 hertz to 2.4 billion hertz.
How do microchips work?
Very thin paths of metal are placed on the same type of material as the device. The paths would act like wires. This could make a circuit be "integrated" on a solid material, creating an integrated circuit(IC).
How do you give a conductive coating to a microchip?
A substrate(a layer that provides interconnections to form a circuit) is placed in a liquid containing metal ions, like gold, copper, or nickel, so it can become conductive.