TED Talk Report -

The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone | Cathy Mulzer

Smartphones are the most popular device in the world, 85.88% of the population own at
least one smartphone, they have feature upon feature that each benefit you and your
experience. With apps for every possible need; easy communication with friends or family,
staying on top of work and plans, testing out new games when a chance is spared. None of
this could be possible without the chemistry powering the smartphone. I chose to watch a
TED talk on a topic that is prevalent and relevant in today's society, being able to have a
further understanding of the device that is so persistent in day to day life.

These devices have to start at the atomic level, chemists make a fundamental impact on
the base of the smartphone. Each section, level, scrap and pisces are used by students
instantly.To reduce the power of a smartphone, measures are made that disrupt the
original coding that make up a phone. The chemistry of the phone starts in the display,
with organic polymers embedded in the display, they take electricity and turn it into the
primary colour wheel to create the bright, vivid and colourful screens that are known and
loved. Batteries are developed further and further combining the chemical principles of
traditional batteries and new high surface electrons, helping chemists pack more charge
and power into a smaller amount of space. Not only this but the adhesives that connect
the phone together are constantly being developed in order to prevent breakage from
frequent usage, being able to withstand shock and harm to the phone. These layers of the
phone make up the way they work, with constant development helping to produce
smartphones that can have the best possible yield and outcome with the target audience.

The electrical components and circuitry boards hold the most power within a phone, these
are necessary to the smartphone to make it work in the way everyone loves so much.
These components are found in a printed circuit board. In the TED talk Cathy Mulzer
describes this as the ‘motherboard’ of the Smartphone, something that controls all actions
like the brain or even the nucleus of a cell. But what makes this circuit board so
important? She continues to present the circuit board almost like a city, with transistors,
resistors, capacitors, and more that have to find a way to connect with each other. The
way to connect these are the tiny copper wires that are able to conduct electricity and
move electricity around the motherboard. Yet these copper wires are so thin and tiny that
chemists had to find a way to create them. This is where Electroless plating gets used.
Starting with a solution of positively charged copper spheres plus an insulating printed
circuit board, when combined with negatively charged electrons (formaldehyde). These
electrons will jump over to those positively charged copper spheres due to a process
known as redox chemistry. Once these reactions take place, the product of the positively
charged copper spheres can be turned into shiny, conductive copper that will be used to
connect the stations on the circuit board.

Over time and generations, as science and technology developed, phones got smaller,
more portable and easier to use. This has proven incredibly useful, seen through a
comparison between old landline phones and today's Smartphones. But what is the most
important is not shrinking the device itself but instead the circuitry inside it. Cath Mulzur
describes the process of Miniaturization, taking the circuits from a micron scale all the way
to a nano scale, around 100x smaller. Photolithography involves manipulating light to
indent features onto a surface. Electromagnetic radiation is taken (light) and used to
shrink down some of the circuitry elements of the smartphone, meaning that more can be
crammed into the same sized space. The method starts with a substrate that has a light
sensitive film placed on top. This is then covered by a template with the pattern of the fine
lines and features that are desired for the smartphone, a bright light is then shone on top
of the template which created a shadow of the pattern that was needed. The combination
of the light and the light sensitive film means a chemical reaction will occur when the film
is exposed to the light, burning the template image onto the substrate. FInally, the
developer takes all hidden areas and removes them, leaving a near pattern carefully on
the substrate. These changes will not only increase the demand of Smartphones but also
provide a greater range of functionality within the Smartphone.

The smartphone is a fully functional electronic device that has been constantly improving
year after year as the understanding of technology itself develops. The new innovations that
are being quickly introduced show an insightful reach forward into the future, where the
understanding of science will have evolved. The foundational need of chemistry in this
development will only increase, that science becoming the backbone of one of the most
important and valued personal items that almost everyone owns. This TED talk gives a
covered view on a topic that isn’t commonly discussed or known, helping to give students,
teachers and learners a better understanding but also better knowledge as to what chemists
can also do, showing variance to other courses, jobs and topics within the subject.