Final answer:
Silicon has an advantage over gallium arsenide as it is less fragile, making it more robust and durable for semiconductor manufacturing. Silicon's versatility and thermal stability, in addition to the well-established silicon processing infrastructure, contribute to its widespread use in electronic applications.
Step-by-step explanation:
An advantage of silicon over gallium arsenide is that silicon is less fragile than gallium arsenide. Silicon's crystalline structure and physical properties confer it a higher mechanical strength, making it a more robust and durable material when handling and manufacturing semiconductor devices.
In the context of semiconductors, silicon is known for its versatility and thermal stability. While gallium arsenide has its own advantages such as higher electron mobility, which allows for higher frequency operation, silicon remains a more practical choice for a wide range of electronic applications, in part due to its robustness.
Furthermore, the established infrastructure for silicon processing makes it a more economical and readily available material for semiconductor manufacturing. It is also worth mentioning that while silicon by itself does not emit light, when specifically engineered (such as in silicon photonics), it can be made to interact with light, although gallium arsenide is typically preferred for optoelectronic devices where direct light emission is required.