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Excellent article, Mr. Hacker :) >ASML started off life within Philips, the Dutch consumer electronics giant. Who started with light bulbs which were using th
by fuzzfactor 5mo ago
Excellent article, Mr. Hacker :)
>ASML started off life within Philips, the Dutch consumer electronics giant.
Who started with light bulbs which were using the electrons for direct visual and UI/UX purposes. Some of the most simple electronic components, but quite a bit like appliances themselves. No surprise a lamp in English means either a bulb, an appliance, or both.
Vacuum tubes were the next step up in complexity and I guess you can take it from there.
In the early radio days it didn't take too many "ampules" to make a radio. Not nearly as complex as a cellphone, but bizarrely more complicated than a light bulb already.
The Edison Effect turned out to be a very strong force after all :)
At one time every building that had electronics, had vacuum tubes. When you moved a radio or TV set, you were carrying your own little vacuum chambers with you from place to place, even as late as CRT's.
With solid-state electronics like this, the vacuum chambers are much bigger, but are only located in a centralized factory process, so you don't have to carry them around with you if you want to be portable.
You wouldn't want to anyway, look how heavy they have gotten ;)
- robocat 5mo agoMany modern electronics still contain a vacuum because MEMS gyroscopes use a high vacuum. The search response also said MEMS oscillators (modern performance replacements for quartz crystals) use a high vacuum but given the iPhone 8 was famously "bricked" by Helium affecting a MEMS oscillator - I'm unsure about that! https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-every-iphone-in-a-medical-facility/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-e... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectromechanical_system_oscillator#Limitations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectromechanical_system_...
- oasisaimlessly 5mo agoMEMS oscillators do use a vacuum, and that's why they're susceptible to helium. A helium atom is tiny compared to an oxygen or nitrogen atom, and can leak through many otherwise-perfect seals. So, a (badly-designed) MEMS oscillator is basically a region of vacuum enclosed by a membrane that only helium can permeate. Of course exposing it to helium is going to permanently change its behavior! Once the helium gets in, there's no reason for it to leave, due to the vastly higher atmospheric pressure outside.
- fuzzfactor 5mo agoVery interesting. Good info about both the gyroscopes and oscillators. I didn't know that much progress had been made. I remember when MEMS started getting capable of micro fluid handling, but wasn't aware of what they were doing with "lack of fluid" :) Really bringing the little vacuum chambers out of the big vacuum chamber and onto the street. Over the decades I have often thought about doing something like that, but not really micro. Now I'm suspicious about something I hadn't considered before at a previous employer's chem lab. Last month when they called me back in, there was inconsistent oscillation being applied (sometimes not) to a key analog sensor on one instrument which is about the same vintage as the iPhone 6 where the problem showed up from the early MEMS oscillators. These instruments have been there for over a decade and it may be some other electronic problem, but this does coincide with a couple additional gas analyzers they brought in a few months ago which are now wasting about 5x more helium than I was using when I was controlling it. Exhausting into one lab, but not having a completely isolated ventilation system. Now I know something to try next time and that's not even why they called me in this time. This could actually be one of those problems that shows up intermittently depending on which way the "wind" blows ;) Sometimes the best way to fix things is to wait until you're smarter :0 Thanks to all for very valuable info and links.