Accelerators...

Image Source: Rob's capibara.com techblog

Topics: Accelerators, Particle Physics, Physics Humor, Semiconductor Technology, STEM

It's interesting most don't know how particle accelerators were "born" and how they affect our everyday lives. I happen to work in a semiconductor manufacturing facility - AKA a wafer "fab" (short for fabrication) facility. The accelerators I see often are called Ion implanters, which in device physics is how an impurity is introduced into a semiconductor's energy band gap - usually rather wide as it would appear in nature (Silicon, Germanium) otherwise, you wouldn't have your laptop or smartphone; your microwave, essentially everything electronic around us we normally take for granted.

Particle accelerators even have a fun history of their beginnings, or as you've probably experienced in a high school physics class - a Van de Graaff Generator. It's more fun if you (ahem, unlike me) have hair...

American Institute of Physics: History of Accelerators