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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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.
Computers and microprocessors are manufactured in "Silicon Valley" in the state of A. New York. B. Illinois. C. Florida. D. California.
Different cars use different microprocessors, and as cars get more sophisticated, they have more types of microprocessors. The original Prius had more computing power in it than was used, in space and on Earth combined, for the first mission to put people on the moon, I am told. That car had multiple computers for multiple jobs, and they did not all use the same processor.
One element that is semiconducter is Silicon. 2nd answer: One common element used to manufacture a semiconductor is silicon. Germanium has also been widely used, and is more sensitive to tiny voltage changes than silicon. The compound gallium arsenide is very common in the manufacture of semiconductor material, as well.
Manufacture can be used as a verb and a noun. There is also the gerund manufacturing.
Commonly doped silicon is used to make semiconductors, but advancements in organic electronics now mean that semiconductors can be made from molecules made from elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen and a few others.