Silicon Week: From sandy beach to Kaby Lake: How sand becomes silicon

Introduction and steps 1 to 4

Note: Our sand to silicon chips feature has been fully updated. This article was first published in May 2009.

Strange things happen in forests – especially Silicon Forest, as Hillsboro in Oregon has come to be known. That’s where D1X, Intel’s largest operational fabrication plant, is based – and it’s where what would have once seemed like a miracle of engineering is performed all day every day.

D1X is where processors measuring just 14 millionths of a millimetre across are made, ready to be shipped to motherboard and PC manufacturers all over the world. The amazing thing about D1X isn’t the way Intel makes ever more diminutive processors, though. It’s what they’re made of.

The whole business is built on sand.

There are more than 300 steps to turn sand into silicon, but you can group them into 10 key areas. If you can’t imagine how the stuff you make sandcastles with can become a Kaby Lake processor, prepare to be amazed…