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Silicon is used for making most semiconductor devices today, so it is used for making microprocessors too. It is the only inexpensive, easy to process semiconductor material currently available to use in making integrated circuits.

Germanium is not practical to make any type of integrated circuit for several reasons.

Gallium arsenide can be used to make integrated circuits, but is too expensive and difficult to process for devices as complicated as microprocessors. Also there is the issue of arsenic toxicity during processing.

Diamond offers possibilities as a semiconductor for very high temperature operation, but processing issues have yet to be worked out.

Carbon nanotubes also offer possibilities for making semiconductor devices, but use in microprocessors is in the far distant future (if ever).

An alloy of silicon and germanium offers many of the advantages of gallium arsenide but without the toxicity issue, but again many processing issues need to be worked out before it is practical to use.

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7y ago
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10y ago

The same properties that make it useful in other integrated circuit chips (e.g. operational amplifiers, timers, voltage regulators, diode arrays, darlington arrays) and discrete transistors.

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Q: Why is silicon used in the manufacture of microprocessors?
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