n00b question

[livewire]

Hi, n00b here.

Please dont get out your shovels or hammers, i'm just asking a honest question.

I've noticed that the term "sand" has been used a lot in the DIY Forum

when referring to semiconductors. Does this mean something along the lines

that transistors and diodes are made out of silicon, basically quartz "sand"?

Therefore: sand = semiconductor?

Since semiconductors are generally not considered "passive" devices,

maybe it could be a fancy acronym for Silicon Active Node Device?

I've searched high and low and could only find this totally geeked-out reference:

Self-Assembled Nanodielectric. Could this explain "sand"?

Or is it something else?

TIA, livewire

[CarlSeibert]

Like on the beach, as you surmise, AFAIK.

[Duggeh]

I've never looked into it. My contextual reading is that sand is a short word to mean solid state / transistor. That is, instead of valve / tube.

Happy to be corrected.

[fishski13]

it's like...doped sand. she say silly-sand and i say silicon.

[Dusty Chalk]

To me, sand == glass == tubes. So I just always remember to read it as opposite of what I think it is.

Or I think of an angry viking with a large, Mjolnir-like hammer, smashing the chipses into little SAND-like bitses.

I don't think it's an acronym.

[Knuckledragger]

. o O Mj

[spritzer]

I think sand just refers to the silicone substrate of solid state devices. In tubes the glass is just the packaging around the active parts.

My namesake (

[guzziguy]

Sounds like Tyll.

[livewire]

Thanks for the replys guys.

So, it's like on the beach......all doped up.

[jgazal]

(...)

Scratching page after page into his notebook, one of Shockley's ideas was to build a semiconductor "sandwich." Three layers of semiconductors all piled together, he thought, just might work like a vacuum tube-with the middle layer turning current on and off at will. After some 30 pages of notes, the concept hadn't quite come together so Shockley set it aside to do other work.

(...)

On January 23, unable to sleep, Shockley was sitting at the kitchen table bright and early in the morning. He suddenly had a revelation. Building on the "sandwich" device he'd come up with on New Year's Eve, he thought he had an idea for an improved transistor. This would be three-layered sandwich. The outermost pieces would be semiconductors with too many electrons, while the bit in the middle would have too few electrons. The middle layer would act like a faucet--as the voltage on that part was adjusted up and down, it could turn current in the sandwich on and off at will.

(...)

Then, on February 18, Shockley learned it could work. Two members of the group, Joseph Becker and John Shive, were working on a separate experiment. Their results could only be explained if the electrons did in fact travel right through the bulk of a semiconductor. When they presented their findings to the group, Shockley knew he had the proof he needed. He jumped up and for the first time shared his concept of a sandwich transistor to the rest of his team.

(...)

Shockley Invents the Junction Transistor

That's my etymological theory.

[mypasswordis]

Nah, I highly doubt it. BJTs aren't even sandwiches like you would think. Each piece of the semiconductor is entirely one solid crystal lattice structure, with the three different dopings. And sand as I know it refers to all transistors, not just BJTs. Sand = silicon dioxide with impurities, silicon is the most commonly thought of semiconductor (Group IV, can also have Group III-V, and I think even Group II-VI semiconductors), and purified silicon dioxide was originally used as the insulating layer between the gate and the bulk of MOSFETs.

[Voltron]

And by the way, fuck your mother.

[jgazal]

Nah, I highly doubt it. BJTs aren't even sandwiches like you would think. Each piece of the semiconductor is entirely one solid crystal lattice structure, with the three different dopings. And sand as I know it refers to all transistors, not just BJTs. Sand = silicon dioxide with impurities, silicon is the most commonly thought of semiconductor (Group IV, can also have Group III-V, and I think even Group II-VI semiconductors), and purified silicon dioxide was originally used as the insulating layer between the gate and the bulk of MOSFETs.

It was just a theory... Now we can eliminate such possibility...

[Dusty Chalk]

jeez. even after my attempt at meaning this place up, we've been helpful again.

Srsly, what is going on, a full moon?

[Tyll Hertsens]

Sounds like Tyll.

Who me?

Sand is a geek hipster term for solid state gear.

Silly kids.