2024/03/21 by Ingrid Burrington · 1 voice · 8 citations
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Engineering · Social Sciences · #Archaeology #Context (archaeology) #Cybernetics and Technology in Society #Electrical engineering #Electronics #Engineering #Engineering physics #History #History of Computing Technologies #Information Systems Theories and Implementation #Materials science #Metallurgy #Monocrystalline silicon #Nanotechnology #Quartz #Silicon #Wafer
paper · doi:10.1109/mahc.2024.3378121
published in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 46(2), 13-23 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
openalex publication_date 2024/03/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Where did the silicon used in manufacturing the first silicon transistors actually come from? While early marketing materials and media coverage of silicon electronics emphasized silicon as a material “found in ordinary sand” (a framing that persists today), silicon wafer manufacture actually requires silicon dioxide purified to levels rarely found in geological deposits, let alone on a typical beach. This paper makes the case that early silicon wafer manufacturing processes most likely utilized high purity quartz crystal sourced from Brazil. Incorporating mineral procurement into the early history of silicon electronics and computers expands its geographic, labor, and military-industrial context to lay bare the global supply chains that have always been necessary for the manufacture of digital electronics at scale. The media valorization of Brazilian quartz during World War II also offers a counter-narrative to the pervasive myth of silicon as merely “ordinary sand.”