Chemistry in smartphones
- ES
- Dec 19, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 21, 2020
I was searching for some interesting scientific discoveries and I found one that grabbed my attention.
Surprisingly, our smartphones are powered by chemistry. For me, I never thought about how smartphones are made, but in this post, you can find out how smartphones are made using Chemistry.
Display <OLED displays>
Nowadays, new phones and televisions have Organic Light-emitting Diodes (OLEDs). OLEDs are new technological displays that are simpler, thinner, and more flexible than Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs).
Each OLEDs pixel can emit red, green and blue lights which LCDs can't do. The OLED have three basic layers: the cathode, anode and organic layer. This organic layer can be separated into a hole transport layer (HTL), an electron transport layer (ETL), and an emissive layer. The HTL and ETL transport electrons and holes to the emissive layer, allowing current to flow from the cathode to the anode and releasing light when the holes and electrons are combined.
Motherboard
The motherboard is the brain of phones. Electrical components and circuitry are located at the motherboard allowing communication between electronic components and tiny copper wires at motherboards form conductive pathways for that communication.
Electroless plating is used to create copper wires through these steps:
1 step: A solution of positively charged copper spheres is added to an insulating printed circuit board.
2 step: Formaldehyde is added to the insulating printed circuit board to add negatively charged electrons.
3 step: Due to a redox reaction, negatively charged electrons are attracted to positively charged copper spheres. Then these positively charged copper spheres turn into conductive copper metal. This copper metal becomes a conductive pathway at the motherboards.
Photolithography
To make more powerful and faster phones, we need more circuitry. To put more circuitry, we need to shrink the size of the circuitry. Photolithography can do the work.
1 step: a mask with a pattern covers a substrate that has a light-sensitive film on it
2 step: expose is with a bright light which creates a shadow of the pattern on the surface. When the light gets through the mask, it will burn the image of the pattern into the substrate.
3 step: a chemical solution called the developer is used to remove the unexposed areas and leaving behind clean fine lines.
What is 5G?
5G is the next generation of mobile internet connection that has a much faster data download and upload speeds allowing us to access more information at the same time. This can handle our data which are increasing every year.
Traditional materials and copper can't handle 5G because of the roughness of the insulating layers which support copper wires. This roughness helps the device to stick together but 5G signal gets lost before it reaches its final destination due to this roughness. This roughness should be removed for 5G signal to reach its destination. We need new technology that can increase inherent adhesion at the smooth surfaces so that the device still can stick together without the roughness.
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