Mining Gems ↔ relates to ↔ Semiconductor

able to prepare it and characterize it in pure form. Its oxides form a family of anions known as silicates. Its melting and boiling points of 1414 °C and 3265 °C, respectively, are the second highest among all the metalloids and nonmetals, being surpassed only by boron. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs in its pure form in the Earth's crust. It is widely distributed throughout space in cosmic dusts, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass), after oxygen. Most silicon is used commercially without being separated, often with very little processing of the natural minerals. Such use includes industrial construction with clays, silica sand, and stone. Silicates are used in Portland cement for mortar and stucco, and mixed with silica sand and gravel to make concrete for walkways, foundations, and roads. They are also used in whiteware ceramics such as porcelain, and in traditional silicate-based soda–lime glass and many other specialty glasses. Silicon compounds such as silicon carbide are used as abrasives and components of high-strength ceramics. Silicon is the basis of the widely used synthetic polymers called silicones. The late 20th century to early 21st century has been described as the Silicon Age (also known as the Digital Age or Information Age) because of the large impact that elemental silicon has on the modern world economy. The small portion of very highly purified elemental silicon used in semiconductor electronics (<15%) is essential to the transistors and integrated circuit chips used in most modern technology such as smartphones and other computers. In 2019, 32.4% of the semiconductor market segment was for networks and communications devices, and the semiconductors industry is projected to reach $726.73 billion by 2027. Silicon is an essential element in biology. Only traces are required by most animals, but some sea sponges and microorganisms, such as diatoms and radiolaria, secrete skeletal structures made of silica.

Silicon is the eighth most abundant element in the universe, coming after hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and nitrogen. This differs from abundance of elements in Earth's crust due to substantial separation of the elements taking place during the formation of the Solar System. Silicon makes up 27.2% of the Earth's crust by weight, second only to oxygen at 45.5%, with which it always is associated in nature. Further fractionation took place in the formation of the Earth by planetary differentiation: Earth's core, which makes up 31.5% of the mass of the Earth, has approximate composition Fe25Ni2Co0.1S3; the mantle makes up 68.1% of the Earth's mass and is composed mostly of denser oxides and silicates, an example being olivine, (Mg,Fe)2SiO4; while the lighter siliceous minerals such as aluminosilicates rise to the surface and form the crust, making up 0.4% of the Earth's mass. The crystallisation of igneous rocks from magma depends on a number of factors; among them are the chemical composition of the magma, the cooling rate, and some properties of the individual minerals to be formed, such as lattice energy, melting point, and complexity of their crystal structure. As magma is cooled, olivine appears first, followed by pyroxene, amphibole, biotite mica, orthoclase feldspar, muscovite mica, quartz, zeolites, and finally, hydrothermal minerals. This sequence shows a trend toward increasingly complex silicate units with cooling, and the introduction of hydroxide and fluoride anions in addition to oxides. Many metals may substitute for silicon. After these igneous rocks undergo weathering, transport, and deposition, sedimentary rocks like clay, shale, and sandstone are formed. Metamorphism also may occur at high temperatures and pressures, creating an even vaster variety of minerals. There are four sources for silicon fluxes into the ocean: chemical weathering of continental rocks, river transport, dissolution of continental terrigenous silicates, and the reaction between submarine basalts and hydrothermal fluid which release dissolved silicon. All four of these fluxes are interconnected in the ocean's biogeochemical cycle as they all were initially formed from the weathering of Earth's crust. Approximately 300–900 megatonnes of aeolian dust is deposited into the world's oceans each year. Of that value, 80–240 megatonnes are in the form of particulate silicon. The total amount of particulate silicon deposition into the ocean is still less than the amount of silicon influx into the ocean via riverine transportation. Aeolian inputs of particulate lithogenic silicon into the North Atlantic and Western North Pacific oceans are the result of dust settling on the oceans from the Sahara and Gobi Desert, respectively.

Alloys Elemental silicon is added to molten cast iron as ferrosilicon or silicocalcium alloys to improve performance in casting thin sections and to prevent the formation of cementite where exposed to outside air. The presence of elemental silicon in molten iron acts as a sink for oxygen, so that the steel carbon content, which must be kept within narrow limits for each type of steel, can be more closely controlled. Ferrosilicon production and use is a monitor of the steel industry, and although this form of elemental silicon is grossly impure, it accounts for 80% of the world's use of free silicon. Silicon is an important constituent of transformer steel, modifying its resistivity and ferromagnetic properties. The properties of silicon may be used to modify alloys with metals other than iron. "Metallurgical grade" silicon is silicon of 95–99% purity. About 55% of the world consumption of metallurgical purity silicon goes for production of aluminium-silicon alloys (silumin alloys) for aluminium part casts, mainly for use in the automotive industry. Silicon's importance in aluminium casting is that a significantly high amount (12%) of silicon in aluminium forms a eutectic mixture which solidifies with very little thermal contraction. This greatly reduces tearing and cracks formed from stress as casting alloys cool to solidity. Silicon also significantly improves the hardness and thus wear-resistance of aluminium. Metallurgical grade silicon is made by melting quartz or quartzite in a large arc furnace, in a carbothermal reduction process with carbon-containing material such as coal, coke or charcoal and woodchips for gas circulation. This production technique without iron is often used for polysilicon production for photovoltaics and also semiconductors. Electronics Silicon semiconductor devices enable modern information technology. The electronic applications are broad, including microelectronics, computing, optoelectronics, and nanotechnology. Among the many advantages of silicon for electronics are: low cost, formation of large pure single crystals, not brittle, conducts heat generated by electrical activity adequately, can be micro-structured and modified in layers, and its oxide is an excellent insulator. An estimated 15% of the world production of metallurgical grade silicon is refined to semiconductor purity. This is typically the "nine-9" or 99.9999999% purity, nearly defect-free single crystalline material. Monocrystalline silicon of such purity is usually produced by the Czochralski process, and is used to produce silicon wafers used in the semiconductor industry, in electronics, and in some high-cost and high-efficiency photovoltaic applications. Pure silicon is an intrinsic semiconductor, which means that unlike metals, it conducts electron holes and electrons released from atoms by heat. Intrinsic silicon's electrical conductivity increases with temperature due to the broadening of the Fermi-Dirac distribution. Pure silicon has too low a conductivity (i.e., too high a resistivity) to be used as a circuit element in electronics. In practice, pure silicon is doped with small concentrations of elements with differing valence electron count (typically boron and phosphorus), which greatly increase its conductivity and adjust its electrical response by controlling the number and type (positive or negative) of activated charge carriers. Such control is necessary for transistors, solar cells, semiconductor detectors, and other semiconductor devices used in the computer industry and other technical applications.

Micron Technology, Inc. is an American multinational semiconductor company that manufactures computer memory and computer data storage products, including dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), flash memory, High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), and solid-state drives (SSDs). Founded in 1978 in Boise, Idaho, Micron is the only major American computer memory manufacturer. It is one of the "Big Three" computer memory manufacturers, along with the South Korean companies Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Micron marketed its consumer products under the brand Crucial, with the sub-brand Ballistix being used to denote products targeting gaming computers, until its disestablishment on 2026. Micron and Intel together created IM Flash Technologies, which produced NAND flash memory. It owned Lexar between 2006 and 2017. Sanjay Mehrotra has served as president and CEO of Micron since 2017. On May 26, 2026, Micron became the latest U.S.

Since 2000 In 2000, Gurtej Singh Sandhu and Trung T. Doan at Micron initiated the development of atomic layer deposition high-k films for DRAM memory devices. This helped drive cost-effective implementation of semiconductor memory, starting with 90 nm node DRAM. Pitch double-patterning was also pioneered by Gurtej Singh Sandhu at Micron during the 2000s, leading to the development of 30-nm class NAND flash memory, and it has since been widely adopted by NAND flash and RAM manufacturers worldwide. In 2002, Micron spun off its personal computer business as MPC Corporation and put it up for sale. The company found the business difficult as the number 12 American computer maker with only 1.3 percent of the market. Micron and Intel created a joint venture in 2005, based in IM Flash Technologies in Lehi, Utah. The two companies formed another joint venture in 2011, IM Flash Singapore, in Singapore. In 2012 Micron became sole owner of this second joint venture. In 2006 Micron acquired Lexar, an American manufacturer of digital media products. The company changed leadership again in June 2007 with COO Mark Durcan becoming president. In 2008, Micron converted the Avezzano chip fab, formerly a Texas Instruments DRAM fab, into a production facility for CMOS image sensors sold by Aptina Imaging. In 2008, Micron spun off Aptina Imaging, which was acquired by ON Semiconductor in 2014. Micron retained a stake in the spinoff. However, the core company suffered setbacks and had to lay off 15 percent of its workforce in October 2008, during which period the company also announced the purchase of Qimonda's 35.6 percent stake in Inotera Memories for $400 million. The trend of layoffs and acquisitions continued in 2009 with the termination of an additional 2,000 employees, and the acquisition of the FLCOS microdisplay company Displaytech. Micron agreed to buy flash-chip maker Numonyx for $1.27 billion in stock in February 2010. On February 3, 2012, CEO Appleton died in a plane crash shortly after takeoff from the Boise Airport. He was the pilot and sole occupant of the Lancair IV aircraft. Mark Durcan replaced Appleton as the CEO shortly thereafter, eliminating his former title of president. In 2013, the Avezzano chip fab was sold to LFoundry. In the 2012 to 2014 period, Micron again went through an acquisition-layoff cycle, becoming the majority shareholder of Inotera Memories, purchasing Elpida Memory for $2 billion and the remaining shares in Rexchip, a PC memory chip manufacturing venture between Powerchip and Elpida Memory for $334 million, while announcing plans to lay off approximately 3,000 workers. Through the Elpida acquisition, Micron became a major supplier to Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPad. In December 2016 Micron finished acquiring the remaining 67 percent of Inotera, making it a 100 percent subsidiary of Micron. In April 2017, Micron announced Sanjay Mehrotra as the new president and CEO to replace Mark Durcan. In June 2017 Micron announced it was discontinuing the Lexar retail removable media storage business and putting some or all of it up for sale. In August of that year the Lexar brand was acquired by Longsys, a flash memory company based in Shenzhen, China. In May 2018, Micron Technology and Intel launched QLC NAND memory to increase storage density. The company ranked 150th on the Fortune 500 list of largest United States corporations by revenue. In February 2019, the first microSD card with a storage capacity of 1 terabyte (TB) was announced by Micron. As of March 2020 3.84TB Micron 5210 Ion is the cheapest large-capacity SSD in the world. In September 2020 the company introduced the world's fastest discrete graphics memory solution. Working with computing technology leader Nvidia, Micron debuted GDDR6X in the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080 graphics processing units (GPUs). In November 2020, the company unveiled a new 176-layer 3D NAND module. It offers improved read and write latency and is slated to be used in the production of a new generation of solid-state drives. On October 22, 2021, Micron closed the sale of IM Flash's Lehi, Utah fab to Texas Instruments for a sale price of US$900 million. In February 2022, Micron announced that it would discontinue its Ballistix gaming brand. With the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, Micron announced its pledge to invest billions in new manufacturing within the United States. In September 2022, Micron announced it would invest $15 billion in a new facility in Boise, Idaho. In October 2022, Micron announced a $100 billion expansion in Clay, New York. Micron Technology owed Netlist, Inc. $445 million in damages for infringing Netlist's patents related to memory-module technology for high-performance computing. The jury found that Micron's semiconductor-memory products violated two of Netlist's patents willfully, potentially allowing the judge to triple the damages. Netlist had sued Micron in 2022, accusing three of its memory-module lines of patent infringement, which Micron denied, also arguing the patents' invalidity. The U.S.

n since 2017. On May 26, 2026, Micron became the latest U.S. company to reach a US$1 trillion market capitalization, amid surging demand for its HBM chips. History 1978–1999 Micron was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 1978 by Ward Parkinson, Joe Parkinson, Dennis Wilson, and Doug Pitman as a semiconductor design consulting company. Startup funding was provided by local Idaho businessmen Tom Nicholson, Allen Noble, Rudolph Nelson, and Ron Yanke. Later it received funding from Idaho billionaire J. R. Simplot, whose fortune was made in the potato business. In 1981, the company moved from consulting to manufacturing with the completion of its first wafer fabrication unit ("Fab 1"), producing 64K DRAM chips. In 1984, the company had its initial public offering. Micron sought to enter the market for RISC processors in 1991 with a product known as FRISC, targeting embedded control and signal processing applications. Running at 80 MHz and described as "a 64-bit processor with fast context-switching time and high floating-point performance", the design supported various features for timely interrupt handling and featured an arithmetic unit capable of handling both integer and floating-point calculations with a claimed throughput of 80 MFLOPS for double-precision arithmetic. Micron aimed to provide a "board-level demonstration supercomputer" in configurations with 256 MB or 1 GB of RAM. Having set up a subsidiary and with the product being designed into graphics cards and accelerators, Micron concluded in 1992 that the effort would not deliver the "best bang for the buck", reassigning engineers to other projects and discontinuing the endeavour. In 1994, founder Joe Parkinson retired as CEO and Steve Appleton took over as Chairman, President, and CEO. A 1996 3-way merger among ZEOS International, Micron Computer, and Micron Custom Manufacturing Services (MCMS) increased the size and scope of the company; this was followed rapidly with the 1997 acquisition of NetFrame Systems, in a bid to enter the mid-range server industry.

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities ("doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping levels are present in the same crystal, they form a semiconductor junction. The term "semiconductors" is sometimes used to refer to semiconductor devices such as microchips and computer processors, which work using the physical properties of semiconductors. The behavior of charge carriers, which include electrons, ions, and electron holes, at these junctions is the basis of diodes, transistors, and most modern electronics. Some examples of semiconductors are silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, and elements near the so-called "metalloid staircase" on the periodic table. After silicon, gallium arsenide is the second-most common semiconductor and is used in laser diodes, solar cells, microwave-frequency integrated circuits, and others. Silicon is a critical element for fabricating most electronic circuits. Semiconductor devices can display a range of different useful properties, such as passing current more easily in one direction than the other, showing variable resistance, and having sensitivity to light or heat. Because the electrical properties of a semiconductor material can be modified by doping and by the application of electrical fields or light, devices made from semiconductors can be used for amplification, switching, and energy conversion. The term semiconductor is also used to describe materials used in high capacity, medium- to high-voltage cables as part of their insulation, and these materials are often plastic XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene) with carbon black. The conductivity of silicon can be increased by adding a small amount (of the order of 1 in 108) of pentavalent (antimony, phosphorus, or arsenic) or trivalent (boron, gallium, indium) atoms. This process is known as doping, and the resulting semiconductors are known as doped or extrinsic semiconductors. Apart from doping, the conductivity of a semiconductor can be improved by increasing its temperature. This is contrary to the behavior of a metal, in which conductivity decreases with an increase in temperature. The modern understanding of the properties of a semiconductor relies on quantum physics to explain the movement of charge carriers in a crystal lattice. Doping greatly increases the number of charge carriers within the crystal. When a semiconductor is doped by Group V elements, they will behave like donors creating free electrons, known as "n-type" doping. When a semiconductor is doped by Group III elements, they will behave like acceptors creating free holes, known as "p-type" doping. The semiconductor materials used in electronic devices are doped under precise conditions to control the concentration and regions of p- and n-type dopants. A single semiconductor device crystal can have many p- and n-type regions; the p–n junctions between these regions are responsible for the useful electronic behavior. Using a hot-point probe, one can determine quickly whether a semiconductor sample is p- or n-type. A few of the properties of semiconductor materials were observed throughout the mid-19th and first decades of the 20th century. The first practical application of semiconductors in electronics was the 1904 development of the cat's-whisker detector, a primitive semiconductor diode used in early radio receivers.

, medium- to high-voltage cables as part of their insulation, and these materials are often plastic XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene) with carbon black. The conductivity of silicon can be increased by adding a small amount (of the order of 1 in 108) of pentavalent (antimony, phosphorus, or arsenic) or trivalent (boron, gallium, indium) atoms. This process is known as doping, and the resulting semiconductors are known as doped or extrinsic semiconductors. Apart from doping, the conductivity of a semiconductor can be improved by increasing its temperature. This is contrary to the behavior of a metal, in which conductivity decreases with an increase in temperature. The modern understanding of the properties of a semiconductor relies on quantum physics to explain the movement of charge carriers in a crystal lattice. Doping greatly increases the number of charge carriers within the crystal. When a semiconductor is doped by Group V elements, they will behave like donors creating free electrons, known as "n-type" doping. When a semiconductor is doped by Group III elements, they will behave like acceptors creating free holes, known as "p-type" doping. The semiconductor materials used in electronic devices are doped under precise conditions to control the concentration and regions of p- and n-type dopants. A single semiconductor device crystal can have many p- and n-type regions; the p–n junctions between these regions are responsible for the useful electronic behavior. Using a hot-point probe, one can determine quickly whether a semiconductor sample is p- or n-type. A few of the properties of semiconductor materials were observed throughout the mid-19th and first decades of the 20th century. The first practical application of semiconductors in electronics was the 1904 development of the cat's-whisker detector, a primitive semiconductor diode used in early radio receivers.

Semiconductors are defined by their unique electric conductive behavior, somewhere between that of a conductor and an insulator. The differences between these materials can be understood in terms of the quantum states for electrons, each of which may contain zero or one electron (by the Pauli exclusion principle). These states are associated with the electronic band structure of the material. Electrical conductivity arises due to the presence of electrons in states that are delocalized (extending through the material), however in order to transport electrons a state must be partially filled, containing an electron only part of the time. If the state is always occupied with an electron, then it is inert, blocking the passage of other electrons via that state. The energies of these quantum states are critical since a state is partially filled only if its energy is near the Fermi level (see Fermi–Dirac statistics). High conductivity in a material comes from it having many partially filled states and much state delocalization. Metals are good electrical conductors and have many partially filled states with energies near their Fermi level. Insulators, by contrast, have few partially filled states, their Fermi levels sit within band gaps with few energy states to occupy. Importantly, an insulator can be made to conduct by increasing its temperature: heating provides energy to promote some electrons across the band gap, inducing partially filled states in both the band of states beneath the band gap (valence band) and the band of states above the band gap (conduction band). An (intrinsic) semiconductor has a band gap that is smaller than that of an insulator and at room temperature, significant numbers of electrons can be excited to cross the band gap. A pure semiconductor, however, is not very useful, as it is neither a very good insulator nor a very good conductor. However, one important feature of semiconductors (and some insulators, known as semi-insulators) is that their conductivity can be increased and controlled by doping with impurities and gating with electric fields. Doping and gating move either the conduction or valence band much closer to the Fermi level and greatly increase the number of partially filled states. Some wider-bandgap semiconductor materials are sometimes referred to as semi-insulators. When undoped, these have electrical conductivity nearer to that of electrical insulators, however they can be doped (making them as useful as semiconductors). Semi-insulators find niche applications in micro-electronics, such as substrates for HEMT. An example of a common semi-insulator is gallium arsenide. Some materials, such as titanium dioxide, can even be used as insulating materials for some applications, while being treated as wide-gap semiconductors for other applications. Charge carriers (electrons and holes) The partial filling of the states at the bottom of the conduction band can be understood as adding electrons to that band. The electrons do not stay indefinitely (due to the natural thermal recombination) but they can move around for some time. The actual concentration of electrons is typically very dilute, and so (unlike in metals) it is possible to think of the electrons in the conduction band of a semiconductor as a sort of classical ideal gas, where the electrons fly around freely without being subject to the Pauli exclusion principle. In most semiconductors, the conduction bands have a parabolic dispersion relation, and so these electrons respond to forces (electric field, magnetic field, etc.) much as they would in a vacuum, though with a different effective mass. Because the electrons behave like an ideal gas, one may also think about conduction in very simplistic terms such as the Drude model, and introduce concepts such as electron mobility. For partial filling at the top of the valence band, it is helpful to introduce the concept of an electron hole. Although the electrons in the valence band are always moving around, a completely full valence band is inert, not conducting any current. If an electron is taken out of the valence band, then the trajectory that the electron would normally have taken is now missing its charge. For the purposes of electric current, this combination of the full valence band, minus the electron, can be converted into a picture of a completely empty band containing a positively charged particle that moves in the same way as the electron. Combined with the negative effective mass of the electrons at the top of the valence band, we arrive at a picture of a positively charged particle that responds to electric and magnetic fields just as a normal positively charged particle would do in a vacuum, again with some positive effective mass.

nt, and dissemination of data and information, including training artificial intelligence, housing IT infrastructure, computer systems, and associated components. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 defines a data center as "any facility that primarily contains electronic equipment used to process, store, and transmit digital information." This includes "a free-standing structure" or "a facility within a larger structure, that uses environmental control equipment to maintain the proper conditions for the operation of electronic equipment." According to IBM, data centers date back to the 1940s; the U.S. military's Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was an early example. Depending on workloads, data centers have different models. An enterprise (on-premises) model hosts the IT infrastructure and data on-premises. Cloud data centers, which include hyperscale data centers, house IT infrastructure resources through an Internet connection, used by cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure; they usually contain 5,000 servers and miles of connection equipment, being as large as 60,000 square feet. Managed service data centers have third party managers hired on behalf of a company, leasing the equipment and infrastructure instead of buying it. Colocation data centers have companies rent space within a data center owned by others and located off company premises, as the colocation data center hosts the infrastructure, while the company provides and manages the components. Edge data centers are smaller, decentralized facilities located closer to end users and devices. In the 2024 U.S. Data Center Energy Usage Report, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that hyperscale and colocation centers contained 74% of the computer servers in 2023. Large data centers require significant energy to power their operations, leading to concerns about the large use of energy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that electricity consumption from these data centers amounts to around 415 terawatt hours (TWh), about 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024, at a growth rate of 12% per year over the last five years. The IEA projects this amount could double to reach around 945 TWh by 2030, growing by around 15% per year. In the U.S. alone, power consumption by data centers will be "almost half of the growth in electricity demand between now and 2030." According to Terry Nguyen and Ben Green of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, a single data center can "consume up to 2 megawatt hours (MWh)," the same as "the equivalent power consumption of a small town." This includes increased electricity costs. According to a study in the academic journal Npj Clean Water, it was estimated that data centers consumed about 1.7 billion liters of water per day in 2021, with 57% drawn from potable supplies, noting that fewer than one-third of operators measured their water use. Concerns over environmental impacts, energy and water use, and other costs have led to opposition to new data centers during the AI boom. These movements have been seen in parts of Europe, the U.S., and South America.

onsumed about 1.7 billion liters of water per day in 2021, with 57% drawn from potable supplies, noting that fewer than one-third of operators measured their water use. Concerns over environmental impacts, energy and water use, and other costs have led to opposition to new data centers during the AI boom. These movements have been seen in parts of Europe, the U.S., and South America.

Data centers have their roots in the huge computer rooms of the 1940s, typified by the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), one of the earliest examples of a data center. Early computer systems were complex to operate and maintain, and required a special environment in which to operate. Many cables were necessary to connect all of the components, and methods to accommodate and organize these were devised such as standard racks to mount equipment, raised floors, and cable trays (installed overhead or under the elevated floor). A single mainframe required a great deal of power and had to be cooled to avoid overheating. Security became important— computers were expensive, and were often used for government and military purposes. As such, basic design guidelines for controlling access to the computer room were devised. During the microcomputer industry boom of the 1980s, computers started to be deployed everywhere, in many cases with little or no care about operating requirements. However, as information technology (IT) operations started to grow in complexity, organizations grew aware of the need to control IT resources. The availability of inexpensive networking equipment, coupled with new standards for the network structured cabling, made it possible to use a hierarchical design that put servers in a specific room inside the company. The use of the term data center, as applied to specially designed computer rooms, started to gain popular recognition about this time. During the dot-com bubble (1997–2000), there was a boom in data center construction because companies needed fast Internet connectivity and non-stop operation to establish their Internet presence. Many companies started building very large facilities, called internet data centers (IDCs), which provided enhanced capabilities, such as crossover backup: "If a Bell Atlantic line is cut, we can transfer them to ... to minimize the time of outage." The global data center market saw steady growth in the 2010s, with a notable acceleration in the latter half of the decade. According to Gartner, worldwide data center infrastructure spending reached $200 billion in 2021, representing a 6% increase from 2020 despite economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, global energy consumption from data centers was 620 TWh, with 80% of that consumption concentrated in the U.S., China, and the United Kingdom. Colocation centers were the most common category worldwide, with 4,799 colocation centers in 127 countries. In that year, the largest data center in the world was Citadel, owned by Switch, at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in Reno, Nevada, occupying 7.2 million square feet. Growth of the data center industry has prompted local resistance. A 2023 survey found social mobilizations against the industry in Europe, the U.S., and South America. These movements expressed concern about the centers' energy and water use, pollution, and impact on agriculture or the landscape. A 2026 poll by Politico suggested that resistance to growth of the industry would make candidates' stance on data centers a significant issue for voters in the U.S. In the United States The U.S. hosted 5,381 data centers in March 2024, the highest number of any country worldwide, accounting for 40% of the global market in 2023. As of 2023, about 80% of U.S. data center load was concentrated in 15 states, led by Virginia and Texas. As of 2025, roughly one third of America's data centers were in three states: Virginia (643), Texas (395), and California (319). The largest concentration of data centers in the world is in Northern Virginia, with over 250 facilities in the region. In 2025, Georgia was the fastest growing data center hub in the U.S., having enacted several state tax exemptions for the industry and hosting between 100 and 150 centers in the state. Local governments have responded to the growing industry in Georgia with a variety of local ordinances to guide permitting of these facilities. The consultancy firm McKinsey & Co., projected U.S. demand to double to 35 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, up from 17 GW in 2022. A study published by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in May 2024 estimated that data centers could consume between 4.6% and 9.1% of the country's electricity generation by 2030. In 2025, it was estimated that the U.S.

ern Oregon to Boise, and is the most populated area in Idaho. Historically, the valley had been known as the Lower Snake River Valley or the Boise River Valley. Pete Olesen, president of the valley's association of local Chambers of Commerce, coined the name "Treasure Valley" in 1959 to reflect the treasure chest of resources and opportunities that the region offered. The valley has a very diverse terrain, from sage flatlands, to mesas, agricultural areas, and urbanized areas.

The Treasure Valley is a valley in the western United States, primarily in southwestern Idaho, where the Payette, Boise, Weiser, Malheur, and Owyhee rivers drain into the Snake River. It includes all the lowland areas from Vale in rural eastern Oregon to Boise, and is the most populated area in Idaho. Historically, the valley had been known as the Lower Snake River Valley or the Boise River Valley. Pete Olesen, president of the valley's association of local Chambers of Commerce, coined the name "Treasure Valley" in 1959 to reflect the treasure chest of resources and opportunities that the region offered. The valley has a very diverse terrain, from sage flatlands, to mesas, agricultural areas, and urbanized areas.

eflect the treasure chest of resources and opportunities that the region offered. The valley has a very diverse terrain, from sage flatlands, to mesas, agricultural areas, and urbanized areas. As the Boise Metropolitan Area grows, more and more undeveloped and agricultural land is being urbanized. History Settling the region The tribes that roamed the area, specifically, were the Northern Paiute and Shoshone. In 1834, Thomas McKay built the original Fort Boise, in the area near present-day Parma, which was run for a time by Francois Payette. It later was moved because of flooding troubles and was abandoned in 1854. The Oregon Trail runs through the Treasure Valley. The valley was settled for the most part by ranchers and farmers, initially to supply the gold and silver mining communities in the higher elevations nearby: Idaho City in the Boise Basin and Silver City in the Owyhees. A new Fort Boise was constructed by the U.S. Army in 1863 in present-day Boise, from which the city grew.

tatic electricity. Corona discharge sources can also be used to reduce static electricity. Often, a fab will be constructed in the following manner (from top to bottom): the roof, which may contain air handling equipment that draws, purifies and cools outside air, an air plenum for distributing the air to several floor-mounted fan filter units, which are also part of the cleanroom's ceiling, the cleanroom itself, which may or may not have more than one story, a return air plenum, the clean subfab that may contain support equipment for the machines in the cleanroom such as chemical delivery, purification, recycling and destruction systems, and the ground floor, that may contain electrical equipment.

lenum for distributing the air to several floor-mounted fan filter units, which are also part of the cleanroom's ceiling, the cleanroom itself, which may or may not have more than one story, a return air plenum, the clean subfab that may contain support equipment for the machines in the cleanroom such as chemical delivery, purification, recycling and destruction systems, and the ground floor, that may contain electrical equipment.

scale alignment of photolithography machines and must be kept within narrow bands of temperature and humidity. Vibration control may be achieved by using deep piles in the cleanroom's foundation that anchor the cleanroom to the bedrock, careful selection of the construction site, and/or using vibration dampers. Controlling temperature and humidity is critical for minimizing static electricity. Corona discharge sources can also be used to reduce static electricity. Often, a fab will be constructed in the following manner (from top to bottom): the roof, which may contain air handling equipment that draws, purifies and cools outside air, an air plenum for distributing the air to several floor-mounted fan filter units, which are also part of the cleanroom's ceiling, the cleanroom itself, which may or may not have more than one story, a return air plenum, the clean subfab that may contain support equipment for the machines in the cleanroom such as chemical delivery, purification, recycling and destruction systems, and the ground floor, that may contain electrical equipment.

Boise (locally also ) is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the county seat of Ada County. The population of the city was 235,685 at the 2020 census. The Boise metropolitan area, located in the Treasure Valley, includes five counties of Idaho with an estimated population of 846,000, the most populous metropolitan area in Idaho and 95th-most populous in the United States. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is 41 miles (66 km) east of the Oregon border and 110 miles (177 km) north of the Nevada border. Downtown Boise's elevation is 2,704 feet (824 m) above sea level. Boise is home to major employers in the technology, manufacturing, and service sectors, including companies such as Micron Technology and Hewlett-Packard.

the Treasure Valley, includes five counties of Idaho with an estimated population of 846,000, the most populous metropolitan area in Idaho and 95th-most populous in the United States. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is 41 miles (66 km) east of the Oregon border and 110 miles (177 km) north of the Nevada border. Downtown Boise's elevation is 2,704 feet (824 m) above sea level. Boise is home to major employers in the technology, manufacturing, and service sectors, including companies such as Micron Technology and Hewlett-Packard.

ise River in southwestern Idaho, it is 41 miles (66 km) east of the Oregon border and 110 miles (177 km) north of the Nevada border. Downtown Boise's elevation is 2,704 feet (824 m) above sea level. Boise is home to major employers in the technology, manufacturing, and service sectors, including companies such as Micron Technology and Hewlett-Packard.

94,967, which by 2025 was estimated to have risen to 546,141. Ada County is by far the state's most populous county; it is home to 26.8% of the state's population. The county seat and largest city is Boise, which is also the state capital. Ada County is included in the Boise metropolitan area. The Ada County Highway District has jurisdiction over all the local county and city streets, except for private roads and state roads.

the Cascade Range, Ada County ranks second in population, behind Spokane County, Washington. History Ada County was created by the Idaho Territory legislature on December 22, 1864, partitioned from Boise County. It is named for Ada Riggs, the daughter of H. C. Riggs, a member of the legislature; he established the county and was a co-founder of Boise.

History Ada County was created by the Idaho Territory legislature on December 22, 1864, partitioned from Boise County. It is named for Ada Riggs, the daughter of H. C. Riggs, a member of the legislature; he established the county and was a co-founder of Boise. Canyon County, which originally included Payette County and most of Gem County, was partitioned from western Ada County in 1891. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,060 square miles (2,700 km2), of which 1,053 square miles (2,730 km2) is land and 7.9 square miles (20 km2) (0.7%) is water. The Boise River flows through the northern portion of the county, and the northwest border is bounded by the foothills of the Boise Range mountains; the summits are in adjacent Boise County.