Why is silicon so important in the manufacturing of computer chips? Is there any viable alternative? If not, why?

Question

What happens when we run out of it?

In: 2

Answer 1

Silicon is a semiconductor, in certain conditions it conducts, and in others, it doesn’t. Germanium is really the only other contender for how we use silicon, and thats much rarer. We don’t really have a risk of a shortage, though, as it’s the second most common element in the Earth’s crust, making up over a quarter of it (second only to oxygen).

There is an ongoing shortage of silicon wafers in the semiconductor industry, but that’s more of a production issue than a supply of silicon.

The computer chip shortage is in part a result of the wafer shortage, and also the fact that the process to turn a wafer into chips takes thousands of hours of work.