Silicon Wafer - Making a Transistor - 3 Inch, Darlington

About this Artwork: The background image is of the chips on the silicon wafer (in the bottom right corner of the display). The chip on this silicon wafer is actually a very simple circuit. It was invented by Sidney Darlington. It is comprised of two transistors, one controlling the other. The green colors are the silicon parts of this chip. The gold colors are the aluminum contact pads. There are about 200 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 Darlington 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. This first purification process creates 99% pure Silicon, a common output is Silicon Carbide. The Silicon Carbide is processed in a trichlorosilane distillation method