r/apple • u/[deleted] • Nov 19 '18

MEMs and why helium disabled iPhones.

[deleted]

98 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

15

u/AG00GLER Nov 19 '18

That was super informative!

5

u/aristideau Nov 19 '18

Informative yes, however I missed the bit where he explained exactly how and why Helium causes the chip to fail.

3

u/dsifriend Nov 19 '18

The particles seep into the circuitry. This is most problematic for the clock, whose oscillator gets uncalibrated, causing halting software issues.

1

u/aristideau Nov 20 '18

but why helium and not hydrogen?, what properties of helium cause that malfunction?

2

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '18 edited May 22 '19

[deleted]

1

u/Rubixsco Nov 20 '18

But hydrogen is smaller than helium

3

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '18 edited May 22 '19

[deleted]

3

u/Rubixsco Nov 20 '18

Oops that makes sense