How smartphones really work
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0:01 - 0:05When I waltzed off to high school
with my new Nokia phone, -
0:05 - 0:08I thought I just had
the new, coolest replacement -
0:08 - 0:11for my old pink princess walkie-talkie.
-
0:11 - 0:15Except now, my friends and I
could text or talk to each other -
0:15 - 0:16wherever we were,
-
0:16 - 0:17instead of pretending,
-
0:17 - 0:20when we were running around
each other's backyards. -
0:20 - 0:22Now, I'll be honest.
-
0:22 - 0:26Back then, I didn't think a lot
about how these devices were made. -
0:26 - 0:29They tended to show up
on Christmas morning, -
0:29 - 0:32so maybe they were made
by the elves in Santa's workshop. -
0:33 - 0:35Let me ask you a question.
-
0:35 - 0:38Who do you think the real elves
that make these devices are? -
0:39 - 0:41If I ask a lot of the people I know,
-
0:42 - 0:45they would say it's the hoodie-wearing
software engineers in Silicon Valley, -
0:45 - 0:47hacking away at code.
-
0:48 - 0:50But a lot has to happen to these devices
-
0:50 - 0:52before they're ready for any kind of code.
-
0:52 - 0:56These devices start at the atomic level.
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0:56 - 0:57So if you ask me,
-
0:57 - 1:00the real elves are the chemists.
-
1:01 - 1:03That's right, I said the chemists.
-
1:04 - 1:08Chemistry is the hero
of electronic communications. -
1:08 - 1:11And my goal today is to convince you
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1:11 - 1:12to agree with me.
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1:14 - 1:16OK, let's start simple,
-
1:16 - 1:20and take a look inside
these insanely addictive devices. -
1:20 - 1:22Because without chemistry,
-
1:22 - 1:26what is an information
superhighway that we love, -
1:26 - 1:29would just be a really expensive,
shiny paperweight. -
1:31 - 1:33Chemistry enables all of these layers.
-
1:34 - 1:36Let's start at the display.
-
1:36 - 1:39How do you think we get
those bright, vivid colors -
1:39 - 1:41that we love so much?
-
1:41 - 1:42Well, I'll tell you.
-
1:42 - 1:45There's organic polymers
embedded within the display, -
1:45 - 1:49that can take electricity
and turn it into the blue, red and green -
1:50 - 1:52that we enjoy in our pictures.
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1:53 - 1:55What if we move down to the battery?
-
1:55 - 1:57Now there's some intense research.
-
1:57 - 2:01How do we take the chemical principles
of traditional batteries -
2:01 - 2:05and pair it with new,
high surface area electrodes, -
2:05 - 2:08so we can pack more charge
in a smaller footprint of space, -
2:08 - 2:11so that we could power
our devices all day long, -
2:11 - 2:12while we're taking selfies,
-
2:12 - 2:14without having to recharge our batteries
-
2:14 - 2:17or sit tethered to an electrical outlet?
-
2:18 - 2:22What if we go to the adhesives
that bind it all together, -
2:22 - 2:25so that it could withstand
our frequent usage? -
2:25 - 2:27After all, as a millennial,
-
2:27 - 2:30I have to take my phone out
at least 200 times a day to check it, -
2:30 - 2:33and in the process,
drop it two to three times. -
2:36 - 2:38But what are the real brains
of these devices? -
2:38 - 2:42What makes them work
the way that we love them so much? -
2:42 - 2:45Well that all has to do
with electrical components and circuitry -
2:45 - 2:49that are tethered
to a printed circuit board. -
2:49 - 2:51Or maybe you prefer a biological metaphor --
-
2:51 - 2:53the motherboard,
you might have heard of that. -
2:55 - 2:58Now, the printed circuit board
doesn't really get talked about a lot. -
2:58 - 3:01And I'll be honest,
I don't know why that is. -
3:01 - 3:03Maybe it's because
it's the least sexy layer -
3:03 - 3:07and it's hidden beneath all of those
other sleek-looking layers. -
3:07 - 3:10But it's time to finally give this
Clark Kent layer -
3:10 - 3:14the Superman-worthy praise it deserves.
-
3:14 - 3:16And so I ask you a question.
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3:16 - 3:18What do you think
a printed circuit board is? -
3:20 - 3:22Well, consider a metaphor.
-
3:22 - 3:24Think about the city that you live in.
-
3:24 - 3:27You have all these points of interest
that you want to get to: -
3:27 - 3:30your home, your work, restaurants,
-
3:30 - 3:32a couple of Starbucks on every block.
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3:33 - 3:36And so we build roads
that connect them all together. -
3:38 - 3:40That's what a printed circuit board is.
-
3:40 - 3:43Except, instead of having
things like restaurants, -
3:43 - 3:47we have transistors on chips,
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3:47 - 3:48capacitors, resistors,
-
3:48 - 3:51all of these electrical components
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3:51 - 3:54that need to find a way
to talk to each other. -
3:54 - 3:56And so what are our roads?
-
3:57 - 3:59Well, we build tiny copper wires.
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4:01 - 4:02So the next question is,
-
4:02 - 4:04how do we make these tiny copper wires?
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4:04 - 4:06They're really small.
-
4:06 - 4:08Could it be that we go
to the hardware store, -
4:08 - 4:10pick up a spool of copper wire,
-
4:10 - 4:13get some wire cutters, a little clip-clip,
-
4:13 - 4:17saw it all up and then, bam --
we have our printed circuit board? -
4:18 - 4:19No way.
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4:19 - 4:22These wires are way too small for that.
-
4:22 - 4:25And so we have to rely
on our friend: chemistry. -
4:27 - 4:30Now, the chemical process
to make these tiny copper wires -
4:30 - 4:32is seemingly simple.
-
4:32 - 4:34We start with a solution
-
4:34 - 4:37of positively charged copper spheres.
-
4:37 - 4:42We then add to it an insulating
printed circuit board. -
4:42 - 4:45And we feed those
positively charged spheres -
4:45 - 4:47negatively charged electrons
-
4:47 - 4:49by adding formaldehyde to the mix.
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4:49 - 4:51So you might remember formaldehyde.
-
4:51 - 4:53Really distinct odor,
-
4:53 - 4:56used to preserve frogs in biology class.
-
4:56 - 4:59Well it turns out it can do
a lot more than just that. -
4:59 - 5:01And it's a really key component
-
5:01 - 5:03to making these tiny copper wires.
-
5:04 - 5:08You see, the electrons
on formaldehyde have a drive. -
5:08 - 5:11They want to jump over to those
positively charged copper spheres. -
5:12 - 5:17And that's all because of a process
known as redox chemistry. -
5:17 - 5:18And when that happens,
-
5:18 - 5:22we can take these positively
charged copper spheres -
5:22 - 5:24and turn them into bright,
-
5:24 - 5:29shiny, metallic and conductive copper.
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5:29 - 5:31And once we have conductive copper,
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5:31 - 5:32now we're cooking with gas.
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5:32 - 5:35And we can get all
of those electrical components -
5:35 - 5:36to talk to each other.
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5:36 - 5:38So thank you once again to chemistry.
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5:40 - 5:41And let's take a thought
-
5:41 - 5:44and think about how far
we've come with chemistry. -
5:46 - 5:48Clearly, in electronic communications,
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5:48 - 5:50size matters.
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5:50 - 5:53So let's think about
how we can shrink down our devices, -
5:53 - 5:57so that we can go from our 1990s
Zack Morris cell phone -
5:57 - 5:59to something a little bit more sleek,
-
5:59 - 6:02like the phones of today
that can fit in our pockets. -
6:02 - 6:03Although, let's be real here:
-
6:04 - 6:07absolutely nothing can fit
into ladies' pants pockets, -
6:07 - 6:10if you can find a pair of pants
that has pockets. -
6:10 - 6:11(Laughter)
-
6:11 - 6:15And I don't think chemistry
can help us with that problem. -
6:17 - 6:20But more important
than shrinking the actual device, -
6:20 - 6:22how do we shrink
the circuitry inside of it, -
6:22 - 6:24and shrink it by 100 times,
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6:24 - 6:28so that we can take the circuitry
from the micron scale -
6:28 - 6:30all the way down to the nanometer scale?
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6:31 - 6:32Because, let's face it,
-
6:32 - 6:36right now we all want
more powerful and faster phones. -
6:36 - 6:40Well, more power and faster
requires more circuitry. -
6:41 - 6:43So how do we do this?
-
6:43 - 6:47It's not like we have some magic
electromagnetic shrink ray, -
6:47 - 6:50like professor Wayne Szalinski used
in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" -
6:50 - 6:51to shrink his children.
-
6:51 - 6:53On accident, of course.
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6:54 - 6:55Or do we?
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6:56 - 6:58Well, actually, in the field,
-
6:58 - 7:00there's a process
that's pretty similar to that. -
7:00 - 7:03And it's name is photolithography.
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7:03 - 7:07In photolithography,
we take electromagnetic radiation, -
7:07 - 7:09or what we tend to call light,
-
7:09 - 7:11and we use it to shrink down
some of that circuitry, -
7:11 - 7:15so that we could cram more of it
into a really small space. -
7:18 - 7:19Now, how does this work?
-
7:20 - 7:22Well, we start with a substrate
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7:22 - 7:25that has a light-sensitive film on it.
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7:25 - 7:28We then cover it with a mask
that has a pattern on top of it -
7:28 - 7:30of fine lines and features
-
7:30 - 7:34that are going to make the phone work
the way that we want it to. -
7:34 - 7:38We then expose a bright light
and shine it through this mask, -
7:38 - 7:41which creates a shadow
of that pattern on the surface. -
7:42 - 7:45Now, anywhere that the light
can get through the mask, -
7:45 - 7:48it's going to cause
a chemical reaction to occur. -
7:48 - 7:53And that's going to burn the image
of that pattern into the substrate. -
7:53 - 7:55So the question you're probably asking is,
-
7:55 - 7:57how do we go from a burned image
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7:57 - 8:00to clean fine lines and features?
-
8:00 - 8:02And for that, we have to use
a chemical solution -
8:02 - 8:04called the developer.
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8:04 - 8:06Now the developer is special.
-
8:06 - 8:10What it can do is take
all of the nonexposed areas -
8:10 - 8:12and remove them selectively,
-
8:12 - 8:15leaving behind clean
fine lines and features, -
8:15 - 8:17and making our miniaturized devices work.
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8:18 - 8:22So, we've used chemistry now
to build up our devices, -
8:22 - 8:25and we've used it
to shrink down our devices. -
8:26 - 8:29So I've probably convinced you
that chemistry is the true hero, -
8:29 - 8:30and we could wrap it up there.
-
8:31 - 8:32(Applause)
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8:32 - 8:33Hold on, we're not done.
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8:33 - 8:35Not so fast.
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8:35 - 8:37Because we're all human.
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8:37 - 8:40And as a human, I always want more.
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8:40 - 8:42And so now I want to think
about how to use chemistry -
8:42 - 8:44to extract more out of a device.
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8:46 - 8:50Right now, we're being told
that we want something called 5G, -
8:50 - 8:53or the promised
fifth generation of wireless. -
8:53 - 8:56Now, you might have heard of 5G
-
8:56 - 8:58in commercials
that are starting to appear. -
8:59 - 9:01Or maybe some of you even experienced it
-
9:01 - 9:03in the 2018 winter Olympics.
-
9:04 - 9:06What I'm most excited about for 5G
-
9:06 - 9:10is that, when I'm late,
running out of the house to catch a plane, -
9:10 - 9:13I can download movies
onto my device in 40 seconds -
9:13 - 9:15as opposed to 40 minutes.
-
9:16 - 9:18But once true 5G is here,
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9:18 - 9:20it's going to be a lot more
than how many movies -
9:20 - 9:21we can put on our device.
-
9:22 - 9:25So the question is,
why is true 5G not here? -
9:26 - 9:28And I'll let you in on a little secret.
-
9:28 - 9:31It's pretty easy to answer.
-
9:31 - 9:33It's just plain hard to do.
-
9:34 - 9:37You see, if you use
those traditional materials and copper -
9:37 - 9:39to build 5G devices,
-
9:39 - 9:42the signal can't make it
to its final destination. -
9:44 - 9:48Traditionally, we use
really rough insulating layers -
9:48 - 9:51to support copper wires.
-
9:51 - 9:53Think about Velcro fasteners.
-
9:53 - 9:57It's the roughness of the two pieces
that make them stick together. -
9:58 - 10:01That's pretty important
if you want to have a device -
10:01 - 10:02that's going to last longer
-
10:02 - 10:04than it takes you to rip it out of the box
-
10:04 - 10:06and start installing
all of your apps on it. -
10:07 - 10:09But this roughness causes a problem.
-
10:10 - 10:13You see, at the high speeds for 5G
-
10:13 - 10:17the signal has to travel
close to that roughness. -
10:17 - 10:21And it makes it get lost
before it reaches its final destination. -
10:22 - 10:24Think about a mountain range.
-
10:24 - 10:28And you have a complex system of roads
that goes up and over it, -
10:28 - 10:30and you're trying
to get to the other side. -
10:30 - 10:32Don't you agree with me
-
10:32 - 10:35that it would probably take
a really long time, -
10:35 - 10:37and you would probably get lost,
-
10:37 - 10:40if you had to go up and down
all of the mountains, -
10:40 - 10:42as opposed to if you just
drilled a flat tunnel -
10:42 - 10:45that could go straight on through?
-
10:45 - 10:47Well it's the same thing
in our 5G devices. -
10:47 - 10:50If we could remove this roughness,
-
10:50 - 10:52then we can send the 5G signal
-
10:52 - 10:54straight on through uninterrupted.
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10:54 - 10:55Sounds pretty good, right?
-
10:56 - 10:57But hold on.
-
10:57 - 11:00Didn't I just tell you
that we needed that roughness -
11:00 - 11:01to keep the device together?
-
11:01 - 11:04And if we remove it,
we're in a situation where now the copper -
11:04 - 11:06isn't going to stick
to that underlying substrate. -
11:08 - 11:10Think about building
a house of Lego blocks, -
11:10 - 11:15with all of the nooks and crannies
that latch together, -
11:15 - 11:17as opposed to smooth building blocks.
-
11:17 - 11:21Which of the two is going to have
more structural integrity -
11:21 - 11:24when the two-year-old comes
ripping through the living room, -
11:24 - 11:26trying to play Godzilla
and knock everything down? -
11:27 - 11:30But what if we put glue
on those smooth blocks? -
11:31 - 11:34And that's what
the industry is waiting for. -
11:34 - 11:37They're waiting for the chemists
to design new, smooth surfaces -
11:37 - 11:40with increased inherent adhesion
-
11:40 - 11:42for some of those copper wires.
-
11:42 - 11:44And when we solve this problem,
-
11:44 - 11:46and we will solve the problem,
-
11:46 - 11:48and we'll work
with physicists and engineers -
11:48 - 11:51to solve all of the challenges of 5G,
-
11:51 - 11:55well then the number of applications
is going to skyrocket. -
11:55 - 11:58So yeah, we'll have things
like self-driving cars, -
11:58 - 12:01because now our data networks
can handle the speeds -
12:01 - 12:05and the amount of information
required to make that work. -
12:05 - 12:08But let's start to use imagination.
-
12:08 - 12:12I can imagine going into a restaurant
with a friend that has a peanut allergy, -
12:12 - 12:13taking out my phone,
-
12:14 - 12:15waving it over the food
-
12:15 - 12:17and having the food tell us
-
12:17 - 12:20a really important answer to a question --
-
12:20 - 12:23deadly or safe to consume?
-
12:24 - 12:27Or maybe our devices will get so good
-
12:27 - 12:30at processing information about us,
-
12:30 - 12:33that they'll become
like our personal trainers. -
12:33 - 12:36And they'll know the most efficient way
for us to burn calories. -
12:36 - 12:38I know come November,
-
12:38 - 12:40when I'm trying to burn off
some of these pregnancy pounds, -
12:40 - 12:43I would love a device
that could tell me how to do that. -
12:45 - 12:47I really don't know
another way of saying it, -
12:47 - 12:49except chemistry is just cool.
-
12:49 - 12:53And it enables all of these
electronic devices. -
12:53 - 12:57So the next time you send a text
or take a selfie, -
12:57 - 13:00think about all those atoms
that are hard at work -
13:00 - 13:02and the innovation that came before them.
-
13:03 - 13:04Who knows,
-
13:04 - 13:07maybe even some of you
listening to this talk, -
13:07 - 13:09perhaps even on your mobile device,
-
13:09 - 13:11will decide that you too
want to play sidekick -
13:11 - 13:12to Captain Chemistry,
-
13:12 - 13:16the true hero of electronic devices.
-
13:16 - 13:18Thank you for your attention,
-
13:18 - 13:20and thank you chemistry.
-
13:20 - 13:23(Applause)
- Title:
- How smartphones really work
- Speaker:
- Cathy Mulzer
- Description:
-
Ever wondered how your smartphone works? Take a journey down to the atomic level with scientist Cathy Mulzer, who reveals how almost every component of our high-powered devices exists thanks to chemists -- and not the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs that come to most people's minds. As she puts it: "Chemistry is the hero of electronic communications."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:36
Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | ||
Erin Gregory approved English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz accepted English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone |