How does high voltage damage a CPU?

[HighFlux]

I'm well aware that increasing voltage increases the temperature of a CPU, but I'm more interested in what else it does. I see the term electromigration thrown around a lot, but I've never seen it explained. So how exactly does high voltage damage a CPU, aside from heat damage?

[stconquest]

I don't know the details.  It has to do with degradation of the material the CPU is made of:  silicon.

[DXMember]

higher voltage means more electricity will be flowing through the chip which causes more heat

and heat degrades electronics

in case of extreme voltages - it just blows up the chip

also some people are concerned with electron migration but it's not really a thing... (you can look it up on wikipedia for what it means)

mainly it's too much power that outputs tremendous amounts of heat and blow the circuitry away if it's not cooled properly

also high enough voltage can blow capacitors and melt resistors away which also causes permanent failure

https://youtu.be/EoWMF3VkI6U?t=1m25s

https://youtu.be/Gw-rUCwLoQ0

https://youtu.be/JCPXckfT-6g

https://youtu.be/fyQVc2YVpX4

[Moonzy]

9 minutes ago, HighFlux said:

 

tbh its just the heat thats causing problems

thats why people can push to insane voltage on LN2 `-`

 

stability though is another story

[GreezyJeezy]

heat buddy. its heat that does it

[Menzenski]

This is how I understand it (willing to be corrected of course, I am by no means an expert in microelectronics):  The transistors inside of a CPU are made up of what are called PN junctions.  The "N" meaning its doped with extra electrons, the "P" meaning that its doped with a lack of electrons, or holes.  A higher voltage across the PN junction causes the extra free electrons to recombine with the holes on the other side of the diode, which basically ruins the PN junction.

 

Some more reading: http://www.circuitstoday.com/pn-junction-breakdown-characteristics

[DragonTamer1]

6 minutes ago, Menzenski said:

This is how I understand it (willing to be corrected of course, I am by no means an expert in microelectronics):  The transistors inside of a CPU are made up of what are called PN junctions.  The "N" meaning its doped with extra electrons, the "P" meaning that its doped with a lack of electrons, or holes.  A higher voltage across the PN junction causes the extra free electrons to recombine with the holes on the other side of the diode, which basically ruins the PN junction.

 

Some more reading: http://www.circuitstoday.com/pn-junction-breakdown-characteristics

This is basically how it works, but unless you are trying to push 5V through the CPU then your CPU will be obsolete and replaced before any real damage occurs. Heat is much more damaging to the chip since it can ruine a chip within minutes.