Silicon bronze alloy

Abstract

In this chapter, properties of silicon are explained in detail. Silicon is an abundant element found in the Earth’s crust in various compounds. Semiconductor and MEMS applications use annually more than 40,000 tons of high-purity silicon. Quartz or silicon dioxide, is the most common starting raw material for purified silicon for semiconductor and sensor applications, and the Siemens process is the most commonly used in semiconductor-grade silicon production. Silicon crystallizes into a diamond cubic crystal structure in which the atoms are covalently bonded. Silicon is a hard, brittle material, and at room temperature under stress silicon single crystal elongates elastically until fracture stress appears without significant plastic deformation. Silicon is a group IV element in the periodic table and is a semiconductor with a bandgap of 1.12 eV, which means that pure silicon at room temperature is almost an insulator. By doping with group III or group V elements, the resistivity of silicon can be varied over a wide range. In this chapter, mechanical and electrical properties of silicon are explained in detailed. Schematic diagrams help to better understand the reaction of silicon and its various properties.