Silicon (Si), element 14, is a hard, brittle, blue-grey, tetravalent non-metal and semiconductor crucial in various applications. Its relatively unreactive nature, significant band gap, expansive optical transmission range and effective anti-reflection coating makes it the predominant semiconductor material in electrical devices, including transistors, solar cells, and integrated circuits. Silicon is also important in physiological and metabolic processes in plants.
In 1901, Indian physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose developed a radio crystal detector using galena.
In 1906, American engineer Greenleaf Whittier Pickard developed the first silicon semiconductor device, a silicon radio crystal detector.
In 1940, Russell Ohl discovered the p–n junction and photovoltaic effects in silicon.
In 1941, techniques were developed for producing high-purity germanium and silicon crystals for radar microwave detector crystals during World War II.
In 1947, physicist William Shockley theorized a field-effect amplifier made from germanium and silicon, but he failed to build a working device.
In 1954, physical chemist Morris Tanenbaum fabricated the first silicon junction transistor at Bell Labs.
In 1955, Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick at Bell Labs accidentally discovered that silicon dioxide (SiO2) could be grown on silicon.
By 1957, Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick published their work on the first manufactured SiO2 semiconductor oxide transistor, representing the first planar transistors.
In 2010, silicene, a new allotrope form of silicon, was isolated.
By 2013, polycrystalline silicon production, used mostly in solar cells, was projected to reach 200,000 metric tons per year.
In 2019, networks and communications devices accounted for 32.4% of the semiconductor market segment.
By 2027, the semiconductors industry is projected to reach $726.73 billion.
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