Siddhartha Nanda

  Start with sand The process of creating a computer chip begins with a type of sand called silica sand, which is comprised of silicon dioxide. Silicon is the base material for semiconductor manufacturing and must be pure before it can be used in the manufacturing process. Silicon ingot Multiple purification and filtering processes are performed in order to deliver electronic-grade silicon, which has a purity of 99.9999%. A purified silicon ingot, which weighs around 100kg, is shaped from melted silica and made ready for the next step. Cut wafers The circular silicon ingot is sliced into wafers as thin as possible while maintaining the material’s ability to be used in the fabrication process. The silicon wafers are then refined and polished in order to provide the best possible surface for the following fabrication steps. Building the chip The base structure of a processor that the transistors are built into is silicon. Silicon is known as a  semiconductor  because it doe...

  You may have heard about tempered glass before, seen it as an advertised feature in gadget specifications or in the form of screen protectors for mobile devices. But what is tempered glass exactly? What makes it different from standard glass or plastic screen protectors? Most importantly, what will tempered glass offer you as a consumer and it is worth the money? The main difference between standard glass and tempered glass – is in the way they are made. Tempered glass is created by heating and then quickly cooling the material – and thus comes with a different structure. One of the main characteristics of tempered glass is that it breaks differently from standard glass. Whereas normally, glass would break into big uneven pieces, tempered glass shatters into small even pieces. This gets rid of the danger of sharp edges and makes it a much safer option should something happen – for this reason, tempered glass is often referred to as “safety glass”. How a tempered glass is better t...