Micro Chips.. HELP!! (1 Viewer)

[BeLLa-DoNNa]

Give a brief description of the way in which micro chips are built and how they work as transistors. Then use availabe evidence to assess teh impact of teh invention of transistors on society with particlur reference to their use in mirco chips and microprocessors.

My teacher said he doesnt want to know how they are built but wants to know what are in them. i am so stuck on this question. I keep writing things but it always goes back to how they are built. Not what are in them.
Can any one help???????

 

[veloc1ty]

Essentially microchips are just extremely complex electric circuits, but all components and the wiring is on a single semiconductor chip.

They are built using photolithography, where UV masks are created on the computer and UV light shone through the mask onto the semiconductor chip which is covered in a light-sensitive chemical (called photoresist). The areas touched by UV are removed and this is repeated many times (up to 50 in more advanced chips) to form the electrical components.

The main component is the transistor, which essentially acts as a switch. When millions of these transistors are on a single chip they are connected up to form things like logic gates which perform certain operations.

Hope that helps, post if you need to know something else (I did integrated circuits for a physics assessment so I know a bit about them).


Edit: This is the relevant dot point -- identify data sources, gather, process, analyse information and use available evidence to assess the impact of the invention of transistors on society with particular reference to their use in microchips and microprocessors.

You don't actually need to know how a transistor works (which I find extremely stupid as we need to know how a vacuum tube works). You don't need to know how microchips are built either. Basically you just need to know the impact on society, which is just listing stuff like improved quality of life etc from them improving computers, transport systems, communications etc etc. So don't worry if you don't fully get how they are built and work.

 

[oliver9977]

@VEloc1ty: can you please list out the things we need to go into as far as impacts on society? you said improved transport...can you please put up a lsit of some pretty generic things we can go into? thanks heaps