Quest for fast charging
by alok parmar and Sukant Khurana
Introduction
When European parliament voted for usage of the universal battery charger in their continent, it was established that chargers have become an unquestionable necessity of the modern world. For a generation dependent on electronic gadgets, a charger is a drug that keeps them addicted. It is not surprising that in a country like India which is world’s second largest mobile handset market, the Indian Cellular Association is planning to achieve a target of producing 1.46 billion chargers by 2025.
Imagine a situation when you have to give a phone interview next morning, you plug in your phone in the night and went to sleep. Next morning you woke up, prepared yourself for the interview and just a few minutes before the interview, you discover that you hadn’t switched ON the plug in the night. Whoa, you have just 15 minutes and an interview to face; you are prepared but your phone isn’t. Next what you can do is to either curse your fate or think of a charger that could charge your phone faster in few minutes.
Given how integral cell phones are to our lives there are only few other things that give us anxiety more than a dying phone, fast chargers are the need of the hour. Chargers which are high on performance, low on maintenance and reasonable price is the demand of the market. This should be a goldmine for start-ups for innovation.
Let us look at the development of chargers to see where we started and have a sense of what it would take us to get to an ultra-fast charger.
Early cell phones were large and bulky, and they consumed a lot of power to function. Many hours of charging could result in only a few minutes to an hour of talk time. So, to make charging easy and convenient, many new technologies were adopted.
As cell phones got smaller, so did their batteries but the demand to keep them powered increased many folds. In the year 2000, inventor Wen-Chin Yang applied for a patent for a mobile phone battery charger. The device had a USB interface, a DC converter, and a mobile phone battery charging plug that could be inserted into the computer to get electric power from the computer.
In 1980s the Most popular Motorola DynaTAC (also called as the banana cell phone) used the toxic Nickel Cadmium battery and the charger with this phone after 10 hours of charging could activate the phone for about 20 mins only.
When the Nickel Hydride batteries made their appearance after nickel-cadmium batteries, the charge time reduced significantly and also these batteries could let people talk for a longer time in a single charge cycle. A normal charge time achieved from this charger in Nokia Cityman 900 was about 4 hours. Nickel Metal Hydroxide, also known as NiMH batteries are extremely lightweight and thin as compared to the previously deployed NiCD batteries. Also, the efficiency of charging had increased and disposing of these batteries was easier as no toxic ingredients were used for the manufacturing of these batteries.
We are now in the age of classic wall chargers. The classic wall charger works with Li-ion batteries. It can be connected using the integrated cable. The
batteries required in today’s cell phones are called as Lithium Poly Ion Batteries. These batteries have 40% more power than the old NiMH batteries. Lithium-Ion batteries require less time to charge up and retain charge for longer too. They are more expensive than the NiMh batteries but have better
charging efficiency and less heating of the batteries during charging, resulting in their choice over NiMH batteries.They’re also environment-friendly and easy to dispose-off when not in use.
Through the cable of USB cable charger, we could not only charge our phones but also do a variety of things such as data transfer, which adds to its versatility. The average charge time via this charger was approximately 3 hours depending on the rating of the charger. Most of the mobile phones today use this technology for charging. These chargers are more versatile than the previous versions
To meet the demand of the people who travel a lot, power banks have been invented. People can choose from either a high-capacity or a low-ranked portable power bank. The charging speed is usually slow for a power bank as compared to USB Charger but it is very portable and is immensely useful while travelling.
Wireless charger technology is helping us to get rid of the hassle of plugs and long cables. The technology used here is Inductive Charging which is very new on the market. It was launched in 2013, but still, it is not able to make a broad presence in the market. Wireless chargers like the Bezalel Futura X also last longer than traditional chargers, as they prevent the wear and tear that usually happens with power cords (as a result of frequent plugging and unplugging). Wireless chargers replenish the charge on your phone in 2 hours and typically weigh less than 100 grams. We think the future is going to wireless but we are not yet sure how fast charging that future would be.
Given ecological concerns in this anthropomorphic age, there is need for more ecofriendly chargers. Whether the available chargers which rely on renwable energy have more hidden enviornmental footprint in the form of material for solar cell is not clear but they are starting to score well with ecologically-minded-millenials in some parts of the world. Solar Chargers are one of the
safest ways to charge the smartphones. The average time required to charge a smartphone through the available solar chargers is generally 4 hours.
There are also some fast chargers in market. Qualcomm quick charge technology is one. Quick charge is one of the few charging technologies which have gone beyond standard 5V-2A charging technology. OnePlus Dash Charger is another and delivers large current to charge the device as compared to most other charging technologies. Given the requirement for fast charging, we think this is going to be a green pasture for some innovative start-up.
The industry has come a long way from being an ultra bulky apparatus to a sleek portable device. The need of the hour are better wireless and fast chargers, as are batteries built using metals cheaper than lithium. Let us see what the future has in store for us.
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About:
Mr. Alok Parmar is working as a citizen scientist with Dr. Khurana.
LinkedIn account — https://www.linkedin.com/in/alok-parmar-3412ba57
Facebook account — https://m.facebook.com/alok.parmar1?ref=bookmarks
Dr. Sukant Khurana runs an academic research lab and several tech companies. He is also a known artist, author, and speaker. You can learn more about Sukant at www.brainnart.com or www.dataisnotjustdata.com and if you wish to work on biomedical research, neuroscience, sustainable development, artificial intelligence or data science projects for public good, you can contact him at skgroup.iiserk@gmail.com or by reaching out to him on linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukant-khurana-755a2343/.
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