Microchips

These connections from everyday objects to each other and data processing centers allow devices to adapt to user needs and improve their ability to respond to real-time data. The IoT networks are designed to enhance the efficiency of homes, cities, and industries.

Stanford researchers arranged the nanotubes in fishnet-like networks that allow deformation without loss of function. The stretchable ICs have been shown to power micro-LED displays and may be used in smart clothing.

In 1965, Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel Corporation, observed a four-year trend of constant growth rate in computing power. Hypothesizing the trend would continue, his observation became the benchmark that the computing industry has worked to maintain for 60 years.

Once the insulating layer in a transistor is small enough, quantum effects allow electrons to leak through the barrier, resulting in lost power. Tunnel-based transistors can use this phenomenon to enable switches powered by smaller voltages and reduced electricity use.

Instead of processing electric signals, photons in the visible and near-infrared serve as optical signals between chips made of electro-optical crystals. PICs can enable lower power consumption and heat generation by eliminating the friction from electrons moving along wires.

During the photolithography process, light is projected through a blueprint onto a light-sensitive chemical layer on silicon wafers, etching patterns that become transistors through a series of successive reactions. These processes require significant electricity, as only about 2% of photons reach the wafer.

Discovered by Thomas Edison, vacuum tubes allow electrical currents to travel through empty space. Later modified into a diode—keeping current flowing in only one direction—vacuum tubes allowed electronics to turn alternating current into direct current.

The US government adopted the new technology to support the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer, which would help astronauts fly to the moon. This drove manufacturing up and costs down, setting the stage for the modern computing era.

The strong carbon bonds in diamonds efficiently carry vibrations, allowing them to conduct heat several times faster than copper, a metal commonly used in heat sinks. AI and high-performance computing have pushed researchers to investigate alternative materials for cooling solutions.

After the mined quartz is processed in an electric-arc furnace to remove oxygen from the silica, it undergoes the Siemens process, where it is bathed in hydrochloric acid. The liquid produced in the reaction undergoes multiple distillations to produce ultra-pure silicon in the end.