You may already know that Foxconn manufactures the iPhone and that electricians aren’t the same thing as electrical engineers. If so, skip ahead or stay tuned for the next article, Electronics 2.
Note: Relevant definitions and FAQs available here.
1. What is electricity, and where does it come from?
A quick refresher in case you don’t recall high school physics…
As you know, atoms make up all matter. Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons.
Electricity is the flow of electrons which have been detached from atoms (usually in conductors, like metals).
What makes metals give up their electrons? The atoms that make up metals have electrons that are loosely attached and move easily.
For more on Current, Voltage, Resistance, Power etc, click here.
Power Generation
Power plants
The electricity that we use in our homes comes from power plants. Traditional power plants burn fuel that was extracted from the earth (e.g. natural gas). When they burn the fuel, they leverage the heat to produce lots of pressurized, fast moving steam. That steam is directed towards turbines, to make them rotate.
Source: Pixabay
An electric generator uses the rotating force created by the turbine to rotate metal coils surrounded by magnets. By virtue of physics (and maybe magic), this produces an electrical current (i.e. the electrons sitting in the copper wire start moving in a specific direction). The electrons flowing from the copper coil push electrons to start moving in the copper wires that are connected ahead (for how many ever miles of wire there are).
Source: Energy Information Administration
So, the electrons come from the metal that’s in wires. How come the electrons don’t run out? Because 1) there are tons and tons of electrons sitting in the miles of wires that come to your house, and 2) when the electrons in the wire move, they make all the electrons a little further ahead along the wire move too.
That means there are miles and miles of wires that can give up their electrons.
Transformers & High-Tension Lines
This electric current is sent through these wires (aka high-tension lines) to a place called an electrical transformer or substation, where the voltage of the current is decreased.
Source: Pixabay
How? If you run a current through a metal coil it produces a magnetic field (here’s why). If you put a second coil in the magnetic field, current starts to flow through it too, even though it isn’t attached to the first coil. If this second coil has less loops or “rungs” than the first, the voltage of the current produced in the second coil will be lower. This is a step-down electrical transformer that lowers the voltage of the electricity (to a safe enough level to transport to your power outlets at home).
In summary:
Source: Shutterstock
Click on image to zoom in.
You can read all about this in our upcoming Energy Series.
Batteries
A small portion of the electricity we use to power our devices also comes from batteries. Batteries leverage a reaction between chemicals and metals to produce a steady flow of electrons.
A battery can have either one or two rods of metal submerged in materials that undergo a series of chemical reactions to give up electrons. The electrons are directed to the object or device that needs to be powered (aka a “load”). The exact configuration varies between batteries (the chemicals in an AA batteries are different from the ones in phone batteries).
Keep in mind, power generation facilities produce most of the energy we use to either power devices directly, or to “recharge” or “reset” the chemical reactions in the batteries that power our devices.
If you’re really curious, here’s an explanation for how a reachargeable phone battery works.
2. Electric vs. Electronic
Electric devices use electrical energy (e.g. from your wall outlet, or from a battery) and convert them into another type of energy (like heat, motion, or light). Think of lightbulbs, toasters, or space heaters. The stream of electrons in electric devices travel through circuits, and are manipulated and stored in simple ways (e.g. controlling the resistance of the circuit to change how fast the current flows).
Electronic devices modify the flow of electrons in a much more sophisticated way. There are numerous circuit components and hardware technologies that can manipulate electrons into moving in certain patterns or directions. Electrons moving in specific patterns through these parts can be thought of as adding or changing information in a system. These “patterns” also leave behind permanent tracks on some circuit components (think of this as analogous to etching or writing). These tracks represent information which we can read back (i.e. how the info is stored on the device). This is how clocks, computers, cellphones, and “smart fridges” work: they convert our physical inputs (the press of a key or button) into changes in the patterns of electrons flowing within the hardware.
If you want to know exactly how a phone or computer works, that info’s coming soon
3. The Electronics Industry
How do different stakeholders in this industry come together to produce your devices?
Who makes electronics?
Apple designs your iPhone, but they don’t actually produce it themselves. They use a third-party contract manufacturer named Foxconn to iron out the details and assemble it.
First, the company that wants to produce a branded end product designs the product (aka an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)…in this case, Apple). Then, they get help from other companies to figure out really specific details of the design, buy parts, and build the final product.
For example:
OEM: Apple designs a lot of the iPhone’s hardware and software.
Contract Manufacturer (CM): Apple works with Foxconn to buy parts and assemble the iPhone. Skim this for more info on what the different types of contract manufacturers are and how their relationships vary.
Buying parts from other OEMs: Apple and Foxconn also buy parts from companies like Intel (e.g. microchips and processors inside your phone). Intel is an OEM too, (but they specialize in specific parts like the “Intel i7 Quadcore processor”, instead of consumer products like the iPhone).
Buying parts from distributors: the manufacturer might also purchase parts from a distributor who sells Intel products. A distributor is a company that sells stuff in high volume (and typically sells to businesses, not consumers).
The different parties work together to figure out who owns intellectual property (IP) for different parts of the device .
In-house Manufacturing and Packaging:
The CM might send a semi-finished product from to let the OEM (the company that designed the product) finish assembling it. Apple doesn’t need to do this, because Foxconn assembles the final product.
Sales & Marketing:
Companies like Apple have a strong enough brand presence to sell their iPhones directly to you at their own stores.
They can also sell some of them to distributors (companies that sell iPhones in high volume to retailers), or directly to the retailer (e.g. Best Buy or Target).
Companies that don’t have such strong brand presence need to sell most of their products to distributors to get their product out (they can’t just rely on people coming to their stores/website).
Note: The most important thing that’s omitted from this chart is the software applications that sit on top of the electronics, which is worth covering separately.
What’s next:
We’ll break down the major segments of this supply chain listed above into the underlying functions they serve.
There’s an enormous layer of administrative, legal, logistical, and management-oriented tasks (and all the softwares and skills that are needed):
Hardware & software R&D design
Identifying the right materials and parts
Negotiating prices and purchase agreements
Intellectual property/law
Inventory, warehousing, logistics
Sales & marketing
Reverse supply chain (repairs, warranties, etc.)
The article is good enough to be understood by anybody who does not know anything about this.