• FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Eleven 9 has to be mined, and there’s only one spot in the world were it exists. A little town in North Carolina.

    What

    Silicon wafer production just started with metallurgical grade quartzite and then chemically processed into high purity. The input material is usually around 98% purity.

    • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      https://www.wired.com/story/book-excerpt-science-of-ultra-pure-silicon/

      As I said, we can make nine 9 silicon. But not eleven 9. China makes billions of nine 9 silicon chips per year. But they can’t make eleven 9. Everyone is trying to create lab made eleven 9, it might not be possible. The natural stuff formed over hundreds of millions of years with basically no exposure to water. Which means no contaminates.

      So yeah, we’ve not succeeded in recreating that.