All articles starting with S

Silicon Valley Robotics

Silicon Valley Robotics is a not-for-profit industry association, launched in 2010, supporting the innovation and commercialization of robotics in the Greater Silicon Valley area of Northern California.

Silicon Valley season 1

First season of HBO's tech-industry satire Silicon Valley (2014), created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler, and Dave Krinsky; 8 episodes following Richard Hendricks' startup Pied Piper, ending at TechCrunch Disrupt; 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Silicon-28

Silicon-28 is the lightest stable isotope of silicon, about 92% of natural silicon. Crystals enriched in it conduct heat ten times better at low temperatures and support quantum computing.

Silicon-carbon composite anode

A silicon-carbon composite anode is a lithium-ion battery anode material in which silicon, offering far more capacity than graphite, is held in a carbon matrix that buffers its swelling.

Silicon-on-sapphire

Silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) is a semiconductor manufacturing technology that grows thin silicon films on insulating sapphire wafers, invented in 1963 and used in radiation-hardened space electronics.

Silicon-vacancy and tin-vacancy centers

Silicon-vacancy (SiV) and tin-vacancy (SnV) centers are optically active color centers in diamond, with an impurity atom between two vacancies, used as spin qubits and single-photon sources for quantum networking.

Silicon-vacancy center

The silicon-vacancy center (SiV) is a color center in diamond where a silicon atom sits between two vacant lattice sites, studied for single photons and quantum-network qubits.

Silicon–germanium

Silicon–germanium, or SiGe, is a semiconductor alloy grown as thin strained layers on silicon wafers, the basis of SiGe BiCMOS RF transceivers, CMOS strain engineering, and germanium-on-silicon photonics.

Silicon–germanium superlattices

Silicon–germanium superlattices are artificial crystalline structures of alternating nanometer-scale layers of silicon, germanium, or SiGe alloys, studied chiefly as thermoelectric materials, where dense interfaces scatter phonons and cut thermal conductivity up to tenfold.

Silicone

Silicone, also called polysiloxane, is a synthetic polymer whose alternating silicon and oxygen backbone yields fluids, gels, elastomers, and resins used in sealants, bakeware, lubricants, and medical implants.

Silicone defoamer

A silicone defoamer is a foam-control agent whose active ingredient is silicone fluid, typically PDMS blended with hydrophobic silica, used across paper, food, pharma, and wastewater industries.

Silicone elastomer soft actuator

A silicone elastomer soft actuator is a deformable robotic device molded from highly stretchable silicone rubber such as Ecoflex and usually driven by pressurized air or vacuum.

Silicone grease

Silicone grease, also called silicone paste, is a lubricant and sealant made by thickening silicone oil with silica, PTFE, or lithium soap, used for O-rings, electrical connectors, and vacuum systems.

Silicone mold casting

Silicone mold casting is a fabrication process that cures liquid two-part silicone rubber in a mold into flexible parts, the primary method for soft robot prototypes.

Silicone oil

Silicone oil is a liquid siloxane polymer, most commonly linear polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), with silicon-oxygen backbones and methyl side groups; it serves as a lubricant, damper fluid, defoamer, and internal tamponade in retinal surgery.

Silicone oil conservation

Silicone oil conservation stabilizes waterlogged archaeological wood by replacing its water with silicone oil that is polymerized in place, first proposed by C. W. Smith in 1993.

Silicone rubber

Silicone rubber, also known as silicone elastomer, is an elastomer with a silicon–oxygen backbone instead of carbon chains, sold commercially since 1944 and stable from about −100 to 250 °C.

Silicone sealant

Silicone sealant is an elastomeric joint sealant based on silicone polymers, used on buildings to seal joints that must stay bonded and flexible for decades.

SiliconFlow

SiliconFlow (硅基流动), formally Beijing SiliconFlow Technology Co., is a Beijing generative-AI inference infrastructure company founded in 2023 by Yuan Jinhui; it filed for a Hong Kong listing in 2026.

Silicosis

Silicosis, also called silica-induced pneumoconiosis, is an incurable progressive occupational lung fibrosis caused by inhaling respirable crystalline silica dust from mining, construction, and engineered stone work; named by Visconti in 1870, with no cure and rising engineered-stone outbreaks.

Siliguri (শিলিগুড়ি)

Siliguri (শিলিগুড়ি), West Bengal city anchoring the Siliguri Corridor or Chicken's Neck, the roughly 20-km-wide sole land link to northeast India; gateway city built on tea, timber, tourism, transport, with rapid urban growth.