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YEAR 8 RESEARCH INVESTIGATION
CLAIM: Silicon dioxide comparison
RATIONALE: Silicon Dioxide is widely used in the tech industry for the manufacture of hardware and componentry, mainly used as a gate dielectric, and being primarily used as an electric insulator in microchips, as well as semiconductors. Being in this report, I will answer this question; “Why is Silicon Dioxide better to use in hardware than its pure base ingredients; silicon and oxygen.”.
Thoughts:
“How has industry been able to miniaturise printed circuit boards”
Answer: (analysis and evaluation prototype.)
High-Density Interconnect (HDI) architecture, microvias, modified semi-additive processes (mSAP), and embedded components. These innovations allow tighter traces, more layers, and microscopic connections that shrink board areas drastically. Silicon is not the key element; however, Copper is the most used. Silicon conducts electricity very well, but silicon dioxide blocks the electricity and opposing each other in many more ways.
ANALYSIS and EVALUATION:
Silica is widely used in tech, along with its base form, Silicon. Silica is very important in terms of what it’s used for, being mostly microprocessors – CPUs, the “brain” of a computer. It takes in data, does math and logic tasks, and tells other parts of the system what to do. Other uses include; Solar panels and optics, or fibre – optics, (Cables that transfer data over long distance.). Though, even being this useful, it is not as commonly used as Copper, Aluminium, Aluminium Nitride, or Boron Nitride. Silica is used in PCBs - (printed circuit boards,) being mixed into certain epoxy resins to prevent other thermal sensitive plastic resins from expanding and eventually breaking, damaging the extremely fragile, microscopic copper connections.
Silicon, the main base ingredient of silica - (Silicon Dioxide, SiO2.) - is mainly used in Figure 2: One of the smallest examples or PCBs are the "Arduboy" game-console series. the hardware industry for being negative temperature coefficient, semi conductive - transmitting specific amount of charge, having structural and electrical integrity at high operating temperatures, and showing traits of metals and non-metals alike. It is used widely for its abundance and affordability in hardware, being suitable for mass-production.
CONCLUSION:
Whilst Silica and Silicon, (bare) have their own, overall useful properties, it has been decided that Silicon is better. Silicon is a semiconductor, being useful for microprocessors and computer chips, while silicon cannot make processing chips on its own, but it instead must be purified into elemental silicon to be used in processors, being crucial for computers. Silica is mainly used for temperature control and electrical insulating, but not as something important as printed circuit boards, which is needed for a working computer.
I’ve discovered, after much research, that silica and its ingredients are both useful in the tech/hardware industry, but in almost opposite ways.
REFERENCE LIST:
Co., Arduboy. “Back and Front of Arduboy,” Wikipedia Images, 25 Feb. 2019, https://www.google.com/imgres?q=arduboy&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fb%2Fb8%2FArduboy_front_back.jpg%3Futm_source%3Den.wikipedia.org%26utm_campaign%3Dindex%26utm_content%3Doriginal&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FArduboy&docid=NIT7v7duzi-3eM&tbnid=3_eoHVFw3G779M&vet=12ahUKEwjHnfDEg6SWAxWlTGwGHY2gMmgQnPAOegQITRAA..i&w=2156&h=1376&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwjHnfDEg6SWAxWlTGwGHY2gMmgQnPAOegQITRAA. Accessed 16 Aug. 2026.
IuE. “Molecular Structure of Silica (Silicon Dioxide, SiO2),” IuE, https://www.google.com/imgres?q=silica%20molecular%20structure&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iue.tuwien.ac.at%2Fphd%2Ffilipovic%2Fimg142.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iue.tuwien.ac.at%2Fphd%2Ffilipovic%2Fnode26.html&docid=C-TeZGku2oxnIM&tbnid=qEB3U5qAFsBSUM&vet=12ahUKEwiSk8S3hKSWAxU9keEIHY6aBroQnPAOegUI4gQQAA..i&w=753&h=818&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwiSk8S3hKSWAxU9keEIHY6aBroQnPAOegUI4gQQAA.
EVALUATION OF SOURCES:
Sodium dioxide (SiO2) Used as insulating layers in conductive metal wiring, preventing short circuits Pure – grade silicon used for microchips Insulating barrier, controls electric current flow between terminals Acts as chemical shield to protect fragile electronic tracks from environmental damage Forms core of fibre-optic cables Serves as source of converting to solar energy. Used for heat dissipation, controlling temperature of dense, cool hardware, without conducting electricity. Widely used in semiconductors
Silicon and oxygen apart in technology: Purified silicon is used in dielectrics and insulation, and as the core material for transistors Oxygen used for medical systems and fibre-optics A silica molecular structure https://www.iue.tuwien.ac.at/phd/filipovic/node26.html