9.9 The Age of Silicon

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General and background information	The materials of electronics	Electrical and electronic circuits, digital and analogue systems	Input devices
Output devices	Processing information	Amplifiers	Future of computers

Optical Fibres - Lesson Outline - with multimedia resources from Australian Multimedia for Physics Students, The University of Sydney
http://www.hscphysics.edu.au/resource/Optical%20Fibres.pdf

The Age of Silicon - Notes prepared by Dr André van Schaik and Dr Richard Coggins for "The New Physics HSC Syllabus" Science Teachers' Workshop, The University of Sydney, 2000. .pdf document

Some Educational Websites of Interest - for The Age of Silicon, from HSC Physics, UNSW
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/hsc/hsc/weblinks.html

Cleanroom Virtual Tour - at MicroTechnology, University of Louisiana
http://mitghmr.spd.louisville.edu/equipment/layout.html

The History of Modern Computers and their Inventors - from About.com
http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.htm

Silicon Zoo - from Molecular Expressions provides micrographs of silicon chips and a Java Applet showing how images are etched onto a chip
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/

Transistorized! - an outline of the history of the transistor, from PBS Online
http://www.pbs.org/transistor/

JOHN BARDEEN - biography from Nobel e-Museum
http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1972/bardeen-bio.html

WILLIAM BRADFORD SHOCKLEY - biography from Nobel e-Museum
http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1956/shockley-bio.html

WALTER H. BRATTAIN - biography from Nobel e-Museum
http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1956/brattain-bio.html

Timeline of Computer History - from The Computer Museum History Center covers years 1945 - 1990
http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/

Introduction to the transistor - a basic introduction to the behaviour of a transistor
http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasseur/vtranen.html

Layout Design Main Index: An introduction to CMOS layout design - Digital Electronics, Boolean Algebra, Transistor Level Schematics, and Stick Diagrams
http://www.geocities.com/cmoslayoutdesign/

The Semiconductor Applet Service - a set of Java Applets from University of Buffalo
http://jas.eng.buffalo.edu/

Basic Electronics - from Rice University
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~elec201/Book/basic_elec.html

Silicon: Uses - from WebElements at the University of Sheffield
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Si/uses.html

Silicon: Physical Properties - from WebElements at the University of Sheffield
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Si/phys.html

A Stay of Execution for the Silicon Chip - a feature article in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/19990701thursday.html

Moore's Law 40th Anniversary - from Intel
http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/index.htm

The Quartz Watch - includes a history and images of the integrated circuits used
http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quartz/

Brass, Glass and Wood: The Fine Art of Technology - includes a part of SILLIAC, The University of Sydney's first computer and one of the first in Australia, part of the collection at the Macleay Museum, scroll down to see image
http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/macleay/cbrgl&wd.htm

SILLIAC 50th Anniversary Celebration Events - from Physics, The University of Sydney
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/foundation/silliac/history.html

ILLIAC I - an early computer at the University of Illinois
http://www.scd.ucar.edu/zine/98/fall/text/0.illiac.html

Computer Museum - at the University of Virginia, well illustrated and set out in timeline order
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/museum.html

How Electronic Gates Work - from How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/digital-electronics.htm

Design Lab - a series of Java Applets that provide an opportunity to experiment with the design of a particular circuit, Prof Svoboda's Virtual Circuits Lab, at Clarkson University
http://www.clarkson.edu/~svoboda/eta/Circuit_Design_Lab/circuit_design_lab.html

Tony Fisher's Circuit Simulator - a series of Java applets simulating circuits such as a potential divider, from University of York, may not work on Macintosh
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~fisher/cctsim/examples/

Electronics Tutorials, Free - from Williamson's Labs, scroll down to Technology then click on Digital Logic link at left of screen.
http://www.williamson-labs.com/

Electronic Projects Online - contains 31 magazine which have been published in various UK electronics magazines, includes background information, circuit diagrams and map of circuit board, from The Electrical Engineering Homepage
http://www.web-ee.com/index.htm

Voltage dividers - from Doctronics Educational Publishing
http://www.doctronics.co.uk/voltage.htm

Digital Television ... Just the Facts - from the Canadian Digital Television Association
http://www.cdtv.ca/en/faq/index.htm

So TV will be digital - from Australian Broadcasting Commission
http://www.abc.net.au/http/sfist/dtt2.htm

BUYING A SATELLITE TV RECEIVER - explanation of both analogue and digital television
http://www.mlesat.com/Articl13.html

What's a DVD and how does it work? - from Team Ninja
http://www.team-ninja.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21299

INTRODUCTION TO PIEZO TRANSDUCERS - from Piezo Systems Ltd
http://www.piezo.com/tech2intropiezotrans.html

Electronic Products Laser Sensors Article - from Automation Sensors
http://www.compad.com.au/clients/autosys/indexPrev.php?updaterUrlPrev=articleDisplay.php&artId=128

Negative Temperature Coefficient Thermistors - five part series of articles from Sensors Magazine
http://www.sensorsmag.com/articles/0597/negtemp/main.shtml

Student Activity

In Search of a Low-Cost Temperature Sensor: Part 1
http://www.sensorsmag.com/sensors/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=314517

In Search of a Low-Cost Temperature Sensor: Part 2
http://www.sensorsmag.com/sensors/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=312303

Temperature Sensors - from temperatures.com
http://www.temperatures.com/index.html

Ohm's law - discussion of thermistors from Antonine Education, UK
http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/Physics_AS/Module_3/Topic_2/topic_2.htm

How to Select and Use the Right Temperature Sensor - from Sensors Magazine Archives
http://archives.sensorsmag.com/articles/0101/24/index.htm

Choosing and Using a Temperature Sensor - from Sensors Magazine archives
http://archives.sensorsmag.com/articles/0100/54/

Sensor Design - from Rice University
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~elec201/Book/sensors.html

Artificial Noses - from Applications web site
http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/nose.html

Relays

Simple electromagnetic Relay Diagram
http://www.railway-technical.com/relay.gif

Topic 7 Output Devices - from Antonine Education, UK http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/Electronics_AS/Electronics_Module_1/Topic_7/topic_7__output_devices.htm

Relays - from MIT
http://web.mit.edu/rec/www/workshop/relays.html

Basic Electromagnetic Relays Worksheet - from Socratic Electronics
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/books/socratic/output/relay1.pdf

Light emitting Diodes (LEDs)

How Light Emitting Diodes Work - from How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/led.html

Introduction to light-emitting diodes - from Molecular Expressions
http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/ledsintro.html

LED Applet - from Molecular Expressions
http://www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/leds/basicoperation/

LED - from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED

Light Emitting Diodes Notes - from Lessons In Electric Circuits hosted by ibiblio, a free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits/Semi/SEMI_3.html#xtocid1822712

Meter check of a diode - from Lessons In Electric Circuits hosted by ibiblio, a free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits/Semi/SEMI_3.html#xtocid182271

Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO) - from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscilloscope

Logic Gates Circuit Simulation Program - a Windows program that can be downloaded and accessewd from your computer
http://www.pontybrenin.freeserve.co.uk/logic/

How does a logic gate in a microchip work? A gate seems like a device that must swing open and closed, yet microchips are etched onto silicon wafers that have no moving parts. So how can the gate open and close? - an Ask the Expert from Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=0005313C-5706-1C72-9EB7809EC588F2D7&catID=3&topicID=5

How Electronic Gates Work - from How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/digital-electronics.htm

Introductory Digital Electronics - includes Logic Gates, truth tables, simple applications, from the Hong Kong Institute of Education
http://www.ied.edu.hk/has/phys/de/

Digital Logic - including logic gates and truth tables from the Play-Hookey Website
http://www.play-hookey.com/digital/

The Building Blocks: Binary Numbers, Boolean Logic, and Gates - from Jerry Tumlin's Virtual World
http://turing.cs.camosun.bc.ca/COMP112/notes/classnotes/Chapter4.pdf

Half and Full Adders - from University of Alberta
http://www.phys.ualberta.ca/~gingrich/phys395/notes/node129.html

Half and Full Adder Applet - from University of Hamburg
http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/applets/hades/webdemos/20-arithmetic/10-adders/halfadd-fulladd_print.html

Analog Computer Basics - including Operational amplifiers from the Play-Hookey Website
http://www.play-hookey.com/analog/

Operational Amplifiers - from University of Alberta
http://www.phys.ualberta.ca/~gingrich/phys395/notes/node99.html

Operational Amplifiers - from Ursinus College
http://webpages.ursinus.edu/lriley/ref/circuits/node5.html

What is Negative Feedback? - from University of Alberta
http://www.aikenamps.com/NegativeFeedback.htm

Operational Amplifiers - from University of Guelph
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/741/741.html

Chip Designers Search for Life After Silicon - an article from the New York Times available to download in pdf
http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/amorphous/News/nytimes-july19.html

Computing with Molecules - a feature article from Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=1&articleID=0000B2EC-6247-1C74-9B81809EC588EF21

A Vertical Leap for Microchips - a feature article from Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=1&articleID=000BD05C-D352-1C6A-84A9809EC588EF21

Little Big Science - a feature article from Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=1&articleID=00018E72-2E88-1C6F-84A9809EC588EF21

Center for Responsible Nanotechnology
http://www.crnano.org/benefits.htm

2020 – Future of Computing - from Nature Magazine. This Nature web focus combines commentaries from leading scientists and news features analysis from journalists assessing how computing science concepts and techniques may transform mainstream science by 2020.
http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/futurecomputing/

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