A chip is a tiny piece of silicon containing several simple electronic circuits. It is also called an integrated circuit or IC. For making a chip, only single-crystal pure silicon is used as its atoms are uniformly bonded and hence accepts any electrical pattern imposed on it. A single-crystal cylinder is sliced into thin wafers of about 0.05 cm thickness each.
Pathways of electricity are then engraved onto this wafer using certain chemicals or ultraviolet light. The wafer is subsequently cut into small chips each of which is mounted on a ceramic base and bound with gold wire.