Discovery of silicon
Silicon existing in rocks was first discovered by Lavoisier in 787, and was mistakenly thought to be a compound by David in 1800. In 1811, J.L. Gay-Lussac and L.-J. Thenard heated potassium and silicon tetrafluoride to obtain impure amorphous silicon, which was named silicon according to the Latin silex (flint); in the same year, Gay-Lussac and Thenard Using silicon tetrafluoride to react with alkaline earth metals, it was found that a reddish-brown compound was formed during the reaction (possibly amorphous silicon containing impurities). It was not until 1823 that silicon was first discovered in the form of an element by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius. A year later, amorphous silicon was extracted using roughly the same method as Gay-Lussac. ; Then the elemental silicon was purified by repeated cleaning; in the same year, Berzelius heated the mixture of silicon oxide powder with iron and carbon at high temperature to obtain iron silicide.
Jöns Jacob Berzelius However, in order to extract pure silicon, Berzelius used a silicon-fluorine-calcium compound, and the solid obtained after dry-burning was decomposed with water to obtain pure silicon. In 1824, in Stockholm, Berzelius obtained silicon by heating potassium fluorosilicate and potassium. The product was contaminated with potassium silicate, but he stirred it in water, and because the water reacted with it, he got a relatively pure silicon powder, so the credit for discovering silicon goes to Berzelius. In 1824, J.J. Berzelius used the same method to remove the fluorosilicic acid after repeated washing, and obtained pure amorphous silicon. It was not until 1854 that crystallized silicon was extracted; in the same year H.S.C. De Vere also produced crystalline silicon for the first time.

Silicon industry development history
Since the 1950s, various research groups have begun research work on silicon. The research groups mainly include: G.K. Teal's group at Bell Labs, which mainly studies the growth of silicon single crystals; W. Heywang's group at Siemens Group and Halske Materials Research Laboratory, which mainly studies the purification of silicon to produce high-purity silicon; the laboratory under the leadership of E. Spenke in Pretzfeld also joined Silicon research work.
In 1957, Killby built the first functional integrated circuits. In 1960, Kahng and Atalla of Bell Labs developed the MOS transistor for the first time. These two inventions opened the way for the large-scale application of silicon integrated circuits in the information technology market.

Silicon is mass produced using two main methods:
There are two main methods for mass production of silicon
1. Vertical zone melting method: Invented in 1952 by K.H. Theuerer et al. of Bell Labs and K. Siebertz and H. Henker of Siemens. After several technical improvements , suitable for mass production, can produce silicon rods with a diameter of several centimeters and a length of more than 1 meter. However, due to the physical limitations of the method itself, the diameter of the silicon rods is restricted.
2. Classic crucible pull method: Due to the continued growth in demand for larger diameter silicon wafers, the vertical zone melting method was replaced by the classic crucible pull method designed based on the czochralski method, which is widely used in the United States. use. Large-scale industrial production of high-quality monocrystalline silicon has a significant impact on computer communication systems, sensors, medical equipment, photovoltaic devices, satellites, spacecraft, etc. Bell Labs, Texas Instruments in the United States, Philips, Siemens and Wacker in Europe Other major global companies seized the opportunity and became early silicon manufacturers. In the 1960s, silicon became the main used semiconductor material. In the 1970s, with the development of laser, luminescence, microwave, and infrared technologies, some compound semiconductors and mixed crystal semiconductor materials: such as gallium arsenide, cadmium sulfide, carbonized The application of silicon, gallium aluminum arsenic has been developed. Some amorphous semiconductor and organic semiconductor materials (such as naphthalene, anthracene, and metal derivatives) also have semiconductor properties within a certain range and have begun to be used.

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