[HN Gopher] "Space age electronics": Inside a GE thin-film paper...
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"Space age electronics": Inside a GE thin-film paperweight from the
1960s
Author : parsecs
Score : 58 points
Date : 2021-07-02 19:37 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.righto.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.righto.com)
| jtchang wrote:
| Why gold wires instead of copper?
| syntaxing wrote:
| A lot of high performance chips like hybrids (the chip, not
| cars) are gold bonded. Mainly because its a good conductor and
| super inert (metal behave funny in contact in space, oxygen is
| earth's "memory" after all).
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| > oxygen is earth's "memory" after all
|
| Could you explain what you mean by this?
| LaMarseillaise wrote:
| They may be referring to 'cold welding'. Oxygen lets metals
| 'remember' what they are connected to. References:
|
| - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_welding
|
| - https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2nQ8isf55s
| canadianfella wrote:
| > metal behave funny
|
| *behaves
| [deleted]
| kens wrote:
| Gold wires were used for bonding in integrated circuits too. I
| think because gold is much more ductile, so you can make thin
| wires that won't break. It's also more resistant to corrosion,
| which is a problem with copper wire.
| pfdietz wrote:
| Doesn't copper interact badly with silicon?
| kens wrote:
| I don't know about copper-silicon interactions, but
| normally you'd bond to a metal pad, not to silicon
| directly. For a while, the "purple plague" was a problem
| when gold bond wires reacted badly with aluminum bond pads,
| forming a purple compound. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go
| ld%E2%80%93aluminium_interme...
| jacquesm wrote:
| The fact that it is more ductile probably also helps with the
| welding process.
| kens wrote:
| Author here if anyone has questions...
| mustacheemperor wrote:
| Thanks for the great write up!
|
| Any chance this thing still works? I imagine it may require
| some modification either way because of the oldschool battery.
| kens wrote:
| The paperweight worked after I fixed a broken wire and
| powered it from a power supply, and it generated the beeping
| sound. However, after I re-assembled it, it switched to an
| annoying fast-beep. I don't know if a component failed or I
| messed something up during assembly.
|
| You can hear the beeping here:
| https://twitter.com/kenshirriff/status/1411032440534028289
| betamaxthetape wrote:
| A great "tear down" of a really interesting device. I'd be
| curious how you ended up with this?
|
| I'm sceptical that the satellite is Ariel 1 or Ariel 2 for two
| reasons: (a) Ariel was the British satellite programme, and I
| think that General Electric would have based the design on an
| American satellite. (b) Ariel 2 was build by Westinghouse, a
| rival to GE. My guess would be that it's a generic design, but
| I would love to hear an update if you find out for sure.
|
| (I'm interested in the Ariel satellites, particularly Ariel 3,
| since I've ended up with a few of the original Ariel 3
| telemetry tapes from the STADAN tracking stations. Still trying
| to work out a viable way to read / understand them...)
| kens wrote:
| The paperweight was loaned to me for analysis.
|
| It's pretty cool that you have Ariel 3 telemetry tapes. I
| agree that the satellite in the paperweight isn't Ariel, but
| Ariel was the most similar satellite I could find. I'm hoping
| someone will find a satellite that is a better match. But it
| could be some obscure proposed satellite that was never
| built.
| jacquesm wrote:
| What kind of physical format do those tapes have?
| Cerium wrote:
| I love that it is a literal paperweight and not simply a relic.
| Thank you for the fun read.
| ipsum2 wrote:
| Could you record a clip of the sound?
| kens wrote:
| You can hear the beeping here:
| https://twitter.com/kenshirriff/status/1411032440534028289
| sensorsbroken wrote:
| Makes you wonder what's possible in 2021 in the age of light
| sails and uncommoditized nanoelectronics.
|
| What is SOTA for 2D semiconductors (e.g. MoS2 with bismuth) in
| production?
| jacquesm wrote:
| Impressive how little that battery leaked over all those years.
| And funny how the transistors have an extra wire coming out of
| them, but those are all paired and run to the same terminal, I
| wonder what's up with that.
|
| The beeper is one of those crystal (piezo) earphones with part of
| the bit that you would stick in your ear cut off.
| kens wrote:
| The two wires are probably for reliability and/or current
| capacity.
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(page generated 2021-07-02 23:00 UTC)