Two mines in North Carolina are the world's only producer of the quartz necessary for semiconductor manufacturing

[quadibloc]

In that case, the next time China refuses to sell neon, I guess we have something we can refuse to sell them!

 

[Underdog]

If this stuff is so wonderful why don't they stop selling it to the bad guys who are planning to use the new technology against the US. like Russia, China, and North Korea?
Oh, sorry. I forgot............Money.

 

[bobc4012]

Key words in the article: High Purity

You're free to believe anything that you want. Just because you believe it and others have said so, does not make it true. Border closings won't stop a cyber attack, but keep believing they will and maybe your belief will make it happen. ....

I didn't realize you could plant C4 or other explosives around critical areas by doing it over the internet. Also, what makes you think they have their critical computer systems connected to the internet like many "stupidly managed" companies do.

 

[physicsnerd1]

Quartz to my knowledge is mostly used as a vibration source for creating clocks based upon Crystal Oscillators.
Quartz containers have also been used to hold wafers during high temperature processing such as annealing damage created by ion implantation doping. It has been mentioned here that quartz is used in crystal pulling to create the silicon ingots which are then sliced into wafers. It is not used inside chips to my knowledge and I am a career semiconductor engineer. Quartz is used as it is benign to silicon and tolerates very high temperatures.