Question

Which metal is widely used in making computer chips?
A. Iron
B. Silicon
C. Germanium
D. Zinc

Answer 1

Hint:Mainly computer chips are the integrated circuit that is IC or also called the small wafer of a semiconductor material which is embedded with the integrated circuitry. These chips consist of the processing and the memory units of the modern digital computer such as microprocessor and RAM. The two major classification of computer chips are primary memory chips and microprocessor chips.

Complete answer:
When the computer chips were been classified on the basis of their functionality there were four types of chips classified and they are the following:
1. Memory chips
2. Microprocessor chips
3.. Standard chips
4. Complex system on a chip.
When we talk about the manufacture of chips then it is said the chips are highly made up of silicon, which is a semiconductor. To make these chips efficient the manufactures use sand which contains a high amount of silicon in it. The mineral quartz is also useful and efficient for this purpose because the two main components of it are silicon and oxygen. The reason for using silicon in the manufacture of computer chips is that it is found in abundance and it is a cheap element to buy. The other reason is that it prevents as well as allows the flow of electricity through it that is both insulators and semiconductors. This has been seen that the microscopic transistors are getting smaller in size each year by squeezing them on silicon chips. The other reason is that this element is easy to purify.

Hence the correct option for this answer is option ‘b’.

Note:
The element silicon is used extensively because it is a semiconductor in solid state devices. It is also present in high temperature ceramics. The silicon carbides are important abrasives which are used in lasers. The microprocessors which are made up of silicon are made by the process called lithography. It is the process in which the light is used to transfer the images onto a substrate. Students should remember the characteristics of silicon.