How is it that heat kills electronics such as computers or car batteries, and not cold?

Question

I know that cold can as well but heat does it much more easily. Why is it that heat does and not cold?

In: 0

Answer 1

One of the easiest ways to create heat (if you have plenty of electricity) is running electricity through thin wires. Really, it’s the other way around; running electricity through thin wires always generates heat. The thinner the wire, the greater the temperature.

Electronics rely on a huge amount of tiny pieces of semi-metal (silicon) and running electricity through these pieces while relying on their semi-metal properties (transistors and semiconductors).

These two facts mean that electronics are always generating heat, and the heat can break the wires and the semiconductors that are necessary for the electronic to work. Often times there’s a thermometer and programming that just turns the electronic off, but sometimes the semiconductors stop semiconducting when they get too hot, and other times the thin wires melt or set things on fire. The first two can see the electronic working again once it cools down; melted wires and burnt plastic usually permanently breaks the electronic.

So the reason heat breaks electronics and cold usually doesn’t is because the electronics are creating heat anyway, so cold is countered by default.