WEBVTT

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When you think of gold, you probably think of jewelry, gold bars, or even, if you're old like me,

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gold slogger. But gold is actually extremely common and important in electronics as well.

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You've probably seen it on contacts for everything from RAM to HDMI to memory cards,

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or these CPU pillows from LTTstore.com. They're actually way softer than I've never touched

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one before. But why is it used so widely? I mean, copper does a fine job of conducting electricity,

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so why do we need to use gold? Well, you're right about copper,

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but gold is superior in some key ways that make it a really good choice for certain applications.

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For one, gold is very non-reactive and resists corrosion and tarnishing. Even though gold is

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slightly less conductive than copper, it still offers electrons extremely little resistance,

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and you don't have to worry about it reacting with chemicals in the environment as much as you

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do with copper, which is why this baby is still looking good. And considering that most electronic

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components use low voltages and current levels, a small amount of tarnish on the conducting

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material can have a big impact on signal integrity. So for intricate connections, many manufacturers

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don't take their chances with anything other than gold. This leads well into the next point.

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Gold is a soft, incredibly ductile metal. It's very easy to work into any shape and size you

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might need. And although copper can obviously be drawn into wire, gold is even softer and can be

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stretched thinner, making it ideal when you think about how small some of these connections are.

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We're talking only a few micrometers, meaning gold's softness combined with its relative

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non-reactivity make it a great choice. In fact, gold is very popular for what's called wire bonding,

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the act of connecting a semiconductor die to the package that holds it, like what you might see

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on your typical desktop CPU. Gold can carry a lot of heat without melting or cracking,

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so it won't hurt your performance just because it's inside the hot environment of your CPU package.

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This is especially important in automotive applications. Our cars are becoming packed with

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more and more electronics, some of which control critical systems. You don't want an autonomous

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driving feature to fail when you're going down the highway at 70 miles an hour. So gold is used

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because it's resistant to the thermal and environmental hazards your car can encounter

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while it's in motion. Additionally, gold is very easy for modern manufacturing devices to bond

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quickly, so it allows chips to roll off the line in large numbers. But gold is also useful for

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applications you might actually see every day. You know how more premium cables are sold with

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gold plated connectors? Although this doesn't do anything to make your signal faster, it does keep

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the connector from wearing down as quickly. Although gold is a soft metal, it actually provides good

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resistance to wear and tear when it's alloyed with a small amount of another metal such as nickel.

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Okay, okay, I get it. Gold is awesome. We love gold. But it's super expensive, right? How can we even

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afford our gadgets if all of this gold isn't all of them? Well, it turns out that you don't need a

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whole lot of gold for most electronic applications since it's mainly used for small intricate

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connections. Your typical smartphone contains less than a dollar's worth of gold. So even though

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it's obviously more expensive than copper, its advantages still make it the most sensible choice

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in many situations. But one thing to keep in mind is that unfortunately, not very much of the total

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gold used in electronics is ever reclaimed. This means that the cost of gold in manufacturing

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can and has gone up over time. So if you've got an old PC or phone that you're not selling

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and just need to dispose of, remember to recycle it properly and to help keep the price of gold

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under control. That's my PSA for today. And remember that those cash for gold places won't

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accept your old motherboard. I've tried. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video,

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hit like, hit subscribe, and hit us up in the comment section with your suggestions for videos

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that we should cover in the future. Always suck at sports.