Helium leak from MRI disabled all Apple devices in the facility

How does one of the most inert gasses in the universe 'interact with microcontrollers' ? The only reason it can kill humans is because it displaces a critical gas (oxygen) if breathed in massive quantities. Is it displacing some other gas that is required for these microcontrollers to work? (seems highly unlikely)

toomuchtodo• 8 years ago

TL;DR Possible fault in an onboard MEMS oscillator from helium exposure.

https://file.scirp.org/pdf/JST_2013122009560886.pdf

Exposure of absolute pressure sensors, resonant microtube density, binary concentration sensors and chip-scale vacuum packaged pirani gauges to room temperature helium resulted in a gradual drift in sensor output. No effect was found for differential pressure sensors and pirani gauges vacuum packaged with ceramic or metal packages. The observed results apply to other vacuum packaged MEMS devices such as gyroscopes, voltage controlled oscillators, infrared and Coriolis mass flow sensors. Potential causes for this loss of hermeticity are discussed as well as application limitations for MEMS sensors.

Helium leak from MRI disabled all Apple devices in the facility

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