All articles A–Z

Silicon spin qubit

A silicon spin qubit stores information in the spin of a single electron or nucleus confined in silicon, offering long coherence times and compatibility with standard CMOS chip manufacturing.

Silicon spin qubits in CMOS

Silicon spin qubits in CMOS are quantum bits stored in the spin of single electrons or holes in silicon quantum dots, built with standard semiconductor manufacturing processes.

A silicon strip detector is a position-sensitive radiation detector whose parallel electrode strips on a silicon wafer measure charged-particle trajectories with micrometre precision, introduced at CERN in 1980.

Silicon T centers

The silicon T center is an atomic-scale defect in silicon whose spins store quantum information while it emits photons at 1326 nm in the telecom O-band.

Silicon tetrachloride

Silicon tetrachloride, also called tetrachlorosilane, is a colorless fuming liquid that reacts violently with water and is a key intermediate in producing fumed silica, optical fiber, and polysilicon.

Silicon tetrafluoride

Silicon tetrafluoride (SiF₄), also called tetrafluorosilane, is a colorless, nonflammable gas formed from silicon or silica reacting with fluorine or hydrofluoric acid, and a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer manufacture.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley: southern San Francisco Bay Area technology cluster centered on Santa Clara County, named by Don Hoefler in 1971. Grew from Stanford Research Park and Fairchild semiconductors into the world's leading hub for venture capital, software, and AI.

Silicon Valley (TV series)

Silicon Valley is HBO's 2014-2019 comedy series created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler, and Dave Krinsky, satirizing tech startups through programmer Richard Hendricks and Pied Piper; six seasons, 53 episodes, 41 Emmy nominations.

Silicon Valley Bank

Silicon Valley Bank was a Santa Clara, California bank for technology startups and venture capital firms that failed in March 2023, the second-largest US bank failure.

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.