Making a silicon chip

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The silicon chips that are the basis of modern computers are made from silicon. Workers in the factories where they are made have to be extremely careful to keep them clean and uncontaminated by fingermarks, or flakes of skin or hair - so they wear clothes like these "bunny suits" to prevent any damage to the chips.

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First of all a design team works on the design of the chip, so they know exactly what it will do, and how it will work.

A thin wafer of silicon is taken - this one will have hundreds of chips made from it.

The wafer is marked with the design, cooked and washed, and will finish up with the hundreds of different chips all over the wafer.

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This is what the surface of a chip looks like - very magnified of course! This photo is magnified 3000 times!

The chip now has "legs" put on it, so it can be attached to the circuit board in the computer.

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