Atomic Silicon

Atomic Silicon

We encountered this silicon rendition of a Bohr atomic model while scanning the surface of an NCR integrated circuit of unknown function. The artwork measures about 40 microns in size and appears to have three individual orbits (atomic orbitals?) with four electrons visible in the orbits. Checking the periodic table of the elements, we discovered that beryllium has an atomic number of four, but this doodle may not be intended to represent the element beryllium. In any event, at 40 microns, the silicon atom on this chip is about 1,300,000 times the size of a single beryllium atom.


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