Silicon Wafer - Making a Transistor - 3 Inch, PNP

About this Artwork: The background image of this artwork is of the chips on the silicon wafer in this display (in the bottom right corner). The chip is a single transistor chip. Transistors are electronic switches that are the logic building blocks of today’s computers. These are PNP (as opposed to NPN) transistors. Transistors have three contacts. You see two of them as the two gold-colored aluminum contact pads. The third is actually the bottom of the chip. The blue and pink colors arise from the different types of silicon used in making the transistor. There are about 2,280 single transistor chips on this silicon wafer. In the bottom right corner of the display is a transistor-can package that would be the type used for a PNP transistor. About Making Computer Chips: Computer chips start out as ordinary sand, which is silicon dioxide. However, the silicon must be made very, very pure. The first step is to melt the sand, in a furnace that reaches about 3200o F, and mix with carbon. T