Helium doesn’t just kill apple devices, It kills anything with a MEMS oscillator. Helium atoms are so small that it’s impossible to make a seal that completely blocks them.
Why a Helium Leak Disabled Every iPhone in a Medical Facility
Submitted 1 month ago by Gaywallet@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-a-helium-leak-disabled-every-iphone-in-a-medical-facility/
Comments
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
tal@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Hmm.
That seems like it’d open a lot of potential abuses.
I wonder what the failure mode of various electronic locks is when they’re exposed to helium?
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
If you are in a position where you can dump random gases into the air supply to the degree it impacts these devices then they are likely compromised in other ways as well.
4th_Times_A_Charm@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Lock picking lawyer gonna have to get on this
LordGimp@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Well that’s not true. It’s just a real bitch. As a welder, helium leak check is about the toughest damn QC to pass. Most welding QC has some reasonable margin for error during inspection, but the damn helium doesn’t care. You can have a beautiful weld with a tiny imperfection at the start or end and it’ll piss helium just as badly as an entirely scuffed bead.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 month ago
…Yet both Android and Apple phones use MEMS silicon for their devices, so why were only Apple phones affected? The answer, it seems, is because Apple recently defected from traditional quartz-based clocks in its phones in favor of clocks that are also made of MEMS silicon.
So, they ask the question of why iPhones are the only ones affected if androids also went to MEMS, then answers if by saying that apple went to MEMS. Are they saying that the clocks in Androids still use quartz, but iPhones use MEMS clocks, even though they both use general MEMS silicon?
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
Are they saying that the clocks in Androids still use quartz, but iPhones use MEMS clocks, even though they both use general MEMS silicon?
Correct. MEMS technology is used in the accelerometers and gyros in the inertial measurement units (IMUs) that are in pretty much every smartphone. Apple decided to switch to using MEMS clocks, probably because it means that they can reduce part count slightly as it would mean that they can incorporate them on the same chip as the CPU or the like.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 month ago
Gotcha. Ok. This article makes a whole lot more sense now. Thank you!!
Midnitte@beehaw.org 1 month ago
By Daniel Oberhaus October 30, 2018, 5:20pm
🤨
Yet both Android and Apple phones use MEMS silicon for their devices, so why were only Apple phones affected?
Glad I’ve got an Android since I could potentially work with liquid Hydrogen…
tal@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Hydrogen
This says that hydrogen isn’t just a problem, just helium:
…stackexchange.com/…/why-is-a-mems-device-affecte…
It seems that MEMS is very sensitive to helium, but only helium. This Link stated that hydrogen does not affect MEMS, which surprised me.
IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org 1 month ago
Can’t speak for MEMS specifically, but it absolutely can make chips shut down whole instruments by changing their properties. It intercalates slower, but has much the same effect once it’s in there.
Midnitte@beehaw.org 1 month ago
Oh derp
nickiam2@aussie.zone 1 month ago
Wasn’t this exact scenario posted to r/talesfromtechsupport a few years ago. It sounds very familiar
floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
This article is from 2018.
noodlejetski@lemm.ee 1 month ago
the fate worse than quenching.
and now I’m imagining Siri speaking in a very high-pitched voice.
veeesix@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
otter@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
…wikipedia.org/…/Microelectromechanical_system_os…
Interesting
So the helium causes physical interference by leaking into the housing?
JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Yup. Helium is such a tiny thing it can diffuse through almost anything, and in MEMS oscillators which are supposed to be at a rock solid 32kHz, causes variance in the frequency eventually just “gumming” it up entirely and causing it to stop working.
If you want to know how and why, Applied Science did a video on it. Five years ago. Because that’s when this leak happened.