Silicon is the material of the digital revolution, of solar energy and of digital photography, which has revolutionized both astronomy and medical imaging. It is also the material of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), indispensable components of smart objects. The discovery of the electronic and optoelectronic properties of germanium and silicon during the Second World War, followed by the invention of the transistor, ushered in the digital age. Although the first transistors were made from germanium, silicon eventually became the preferred material for these technologies. Silicon, From Sand to Chips 2 traces the history of the discoveries, inventions and developments in basic components and chips that these two materials enabled one after the other. The book is divided into two volumes and this second volume is devoted to microelectronic and optoelectronic chips, solar cells and MEMS.
Silicon is the material of the digital revolution, of solar energy and of digital photography, which has revolutionized both astronomy and medical imaging. It is also the material of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), indispensable components of smart objects. The discovery of the electronic and optoelectronic properties of germanium and silicon during the Second World War, followed by the invention of the transistor, ushered in the digital age. Although the first transistors were made from germanium, silicon eventually became the preferred material for these technologies. Silicon, From Sand to Chips 1 traces the history of the discoveries, inventions and developments in basic components and chips that these two materials enabled one after the other. The book is divided into two volumes and this first volume is devoted to basic microelectronic components.
This is a story about sand and how science and silicon changed our lives. Over the last century, science taught us how to take this most common material and create the products on which we depend. It allows us to determine the atomic structure of materials and to grow novel, new materials atomic layer by atomic layer. The principles of thermodynamics are used to transform sand into ultra pure silicon. Quantum mechanics gave birth to the electronic age and the computer chip in which dopants are precisely placed in ultra pure silicon. The absorption and emission and reflection of quanta of light, photons, underlies solar cells, light emitting diodes, radiation detectors and optical fibers. This book follows the history of these scientific discoveries and relates them to the products made from sand.
Sand to Silicon is just such an attempt an excursion into the past- to see how these technologies were developed, and the role played by the Indian scientists and engineers. It covers the entire gamut of developments in semiconductors, computers, fibre optics, telecommunications, optical technologies and the Internet.
A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives. After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future. And, incredibly, we're running out of it. The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.
This reference provides thorough and in-depth coverage of the latest production and processing technologies encountered in the aluminum alloy industry, discussing current analytical methods for aluminum alloy characterization as well as extractive metallurgy, smelting, master alloy formation, and recycling. The Handbook of Aluminum: Volume 2 examin
Opto-Mechanical Systems Design, Fourth Edition is different in many ways from its three earlier editions: coauthor Daniel Vukobratovich has brought his broad expertise in materials, opto-mechanical design, analysis of optical instruments, large mirrors, and structures to bear throughout the book; Jan Nijenhuis has contributed a comprehensive new chapter on kinematics and applications of flexures; and several other experts in special aspects of opto-mechanics have contributed portions of other chapters. An expanded feature—a total of 110 worked-out design examples—has been added to several chapters to show how the theory, equations, and analytical methods can be applied by the reader. Finally, the extended text, new illustrations, new tables of data, and new references have warranted publication of this work in the form of two separate but closely entwined volumes. The first volume, Design and Analysis of Opto-Mechanical Assemblies, addresses topics pertaining primarily to optics smaller than 50 cm aperture. It summarizes the opto-mechanical design process, considers pertinent environmental influences, lists and updates key parameters for materials, illustrates numerous ways for mounting individual and multiple lenses, shows typical ways to design and mount windows and similar components, details designs for many types of prisms and techniques for mounting them, suggests designs and mounting techniques for small mirrors, explains the benefits of kinematic design and uses of flexures, describes how to analyze various types of opto-mechanical interfaces, demonstrates how the strength of glass can be determined and how to estimate stress generated in optics, and explains how changing temperature affects opto-mechanical assemblies. The second volume, Design and Analysis of Large Mirrors and Structures, concentrates on the design and mounting of significantly larger optics and their structures, including a new and important topic: detailed consideration of factors affecting large mirror performance. The book details how to design and fabricate very large single-substrate, segmented, and lightweight mirrors; describes mountings for large mirrors with their optical axes in vertical, horizontal, and variable orientations; indicates how metal and composite mirrors differ from ones made of glass; explains key design aspects of optical instrument structural design; and takes a look at an emerging technology—the evolution and applications of silicon and silicon carbide in mirrors and other types of components for optical applications.
ISES Solar World Congress is the most important conference in the solar energy field around the world. The subject of ISES SWC 2007 is Solar Energy and Human Settlement, it is the first time that it is held in China. This proceedings consist of 600 papers and 30 invited papers, whose authors are top scientists and experts in the world. ISES SWC 2007 covers all aspects of renewable energy, including PV, collector, solar thermal electricity, wind, and biomass energy.
Lists citations with abstracts for aerospace related reports obtained from world wide sources and announces documents that have recently been entered into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database.
From endless sand dunes and prickly cacti to shimmering mirages and green oases, deserts evoke contradictory images in us. They are lands of desolation, but also of romance, of blistering Mojave heat and biting Gobi cold. Covering a quarter of the earth’s land mass and providing a home to half a billion people, they are both a physical reality and landscapes of the mind. The idea of the desert has long captured Western imagination, put on display in films and literature, but these portrayals often fail to capture the true scope and diversity of the people living there. Bridging the scientific and cultural gaps between perception and reality, The Desert celebrates our fascination with these arid lands and their inhabitants, as well as their importance both throughout history and in the world today. Covering an immense geographical range, Michael Welland wanders from the Sahara to the Atacama, depicting the often bizarre adaptations of plants and animals to these hostile environments. He also looks at these seemingly infertile landscapes in the context of their place in history—as the birthplaces not only of critical evolutionary adaptations, civilizations, and social progress, but also of ideologies. Telling the stories of the diverse peoples who call the desert home, he describes how people have survived there, their contributions to agricultural development, and their emphasis on water and its scarcity. He also delves into the allure of deserts and how they have been used in literature and film and their influence on fashion, art, and architecture. As Welland reveals, deserts may be difficult to define, but they play an active role in the evolution of our global climate and society at large, and their future is of the utmost importance. Entertaining, informative, and surprising, The Desert is an intriguing new look at these seemingly harsh and inhospitable landscapes.
