Mobile device biggest bottleneck: How to break through the battery?

U.S. Science and Technology blog ReadWrite recently, the mobile devices used in the battery technology analysis of the situation, that if not quickly in this area to achieve breakthroughs, may hinder the future development of the mobile industry.

The following is the full text of the article:

One day in the future, my body, my pockets and my house will be filled with all sorts of smart devices, and I can control almost everything in my life with voice, gesture, or finger clicks. The experience is really cool-but the drawback is that I can't get rid of the shackles of the tangled wires.

These blot wires make this happy scene instantly uninteresting: if I forget to recharge my cell phone or wearable device, or forget to carry a spare battery and a charging cable, I will instantly get back to my original form--all connections between the devices will be cut off.

This is too bad. The current era is undergoing rapid innovation, but battery technology has been stagnant. The major companies are sparing no effort to make up for this shortcoming, but the flexibility is only flexible, can never completely solve the problem. At the same time, more and more equipment, applications and accessories are strengthening their mobile properties, so today's small annoyance may become tomorrow's big problem, even a far-reaching systemic problem.

If the future world is really going to rely on batteries, human beings do have a long shoulder.

Short duration

When I leave home, my phone will notify my smart home system to turn off all lighting in the room. My smart watch also sends a vibrating reminder when I receive a text message. It's not an important message, so I'm going to move on. Because of the data on the gym bracelet, I had a high quality of sleep last night, so I walked lightly. But I am not in a hurry, because the mobile phone information shows that the bus is 7 minutes late, so the time is ample. So I used a Bluetooth wireless headset to pick up a friend's phone.

My whole body is wired into wireless networks, and smartphones are at the heart of it all.

Soon after, my battery was depleted. So I went back to 1989 years. I had to use a paper map to look at the road, have to ask strangers around me, and keep in touch with people through almost extinct public telephones. I came to a café where I could pay for PayPal, but I couldn't start the application now, but I struggled to find a few coins in my pocket to get a cup of coffee.

Finally, I came home to the door, but the smart home system was ignorant. So, I could only open the door with a mechanical key and then come to the light in the dark. Because of the dark, the calf was bruised by the impact on all kinds of furniture.

Although I hate to admit it, this is no coincidence. Luckily, I'm usually not far from home. But international travellers may be less fortunate because of the new rules issued by the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration.

Aliens who fly to the United States must ensure that their electronic products are turned on before they can go through security checks. If you are being smoked and you need to be checked, your phone, tablet, e-reader, and other devices will not turn on, and you may be denied access.

Imagine, if you were in this situation, what would be the choice: would you throw away your phone to get on the plane? Or at the risk of missing a plane, find a socket to recharge the device? What if your charger or charge line is in your checked baggage? These are very difficult choices, but in terms of current battery technology, many people will inevitably encounter similar problems.

No batteries, no moving.

Most of the time, I carry a charger, a wire, and an external battery--and I travel with one more.

Preparedness is necessary, but because of my wireless headset, fitness bracelet, e-readers, tablets, hot spots and notebooks and other devices have a succession of power, I have been overwhelmed. Of these devices, the iphone is undoubtedly the most important one.

From the first iphone of 2007 to the latest iphone 5s, the battery capacity of Apple smartphones increased by only 12%. When the first iphone was 1400 ma, the iphone 5s was about 1570 Ma. This is really pathetic compared to the Samsung Galaxy S5 's 2800 ma, but the latter increases the size of the battery to 5.1 inches, with little real change.

Apple has also optimized iOS software, taking into account energy consumption issues. For this reason, the iphone's estimated battery life is basically consistent throughout the process. It's amazing, after all, that the iphone has added a Retina display and a more powerful processor.

But in actual use, the user experience has not been much improved. Although Apple has improved the energy efficiency of the software by optimizing it-for example, when the background program is inactive for a period of time, iOS stops it-and my iphone is still very difficult to achieve full day. Admittedly, I am a user of heavy electronic devices and will associate the iphone with many other devices and services. But if the utopian networking world envisioned by the tech industry does emerge, it is believed that most people will suffer a similar dilemma.

There are rumours that Apple will launch two larger-screen iphone 6--4.7 inches and 5.5-inch versions of the 1800 MA and 2500 MA batteries respectively. Even if the news is true, it can not bring much improvement, after all, the larger the mobile screen, the power consumption is bound to increase.

Take another look at Apple's rivals: The latest generation of Android operating systems could bring a glimmer of the gospel to the Android camp, which prefers the big screen. The Android L system, which is about to be installed on the Nexus 5 smartphone and Nexus 7 Tablet PC, will have Project Volta Energy-saving features built into it, up to 36% more battery time.

This is the current state of mobile technology: Because of the lack of more powerful batteries, companies have to rack their brains to adopt a variety of alternatives, so that in the current battery capacity, as far as possible to extend the endurance time.

Wearable equipment challenges difficult

For wearable devices, battery endurance may have a greater impact. Limited by the size of the device, manufacturers of these devices are unable to use a larger capacity battery.

This also led to Pebble and other enterprises have to make compromises. Instead of using the LCD screen, the start-up company used a more energy-efficient electronic ink display to achieve a 4-7-day endurance. and LG and other companies seem to refuse to accept the reality: LG G Android Wear smart watch selected 1.5-inch full-color touch screen, whether it is the use of feelings or display effects are rated first-class. Unfortunately, it only lasts a day and a half.

Some wearable devices even discard the screen directly, relying entirely on mobile apps and mobile screens to display data, such as Shine, ringly, and Jawbone UP24.

However, these devices will at least not be able to squeeze the cell phone battery capacity that is not rich enough, like traditional accessories. You can attribute this to Low-power Bluetooth technology (BLE). Traditional Bluetooth, which needs to be connected at any time, will greatly deplete the power of smartphones. But with BLE, the efficiency of this technique has been greatly improved.

BLE may be energy-efficient, but it cannot really increase smartphone battery capacity or increase the power of devices that rely on smartphones. The only solution to this problem is a new generation of battery technology.

Where does the battery break through the road?

Engineers and scientists are stepping up research into a new generation of battery technology, some of which have even made some encouraging breakthroughs. But the problem is that there is not a lot of technological breakthroughs that can actually be put into business.

Graphene batteries can store more electricity in smaller spaces and lighter weights, but remain stable. Experiments have shown that silicon beads (Silicon bead) can also increase the capacity of lithium batteries in mobile phones. Micro-batteries (microbattery) have also been redesigned to work with positive and negative poles to produce small but large-capacity batteries.

Today, researchers are interested in air electrode technology, which doubles the battery's duration at a lower cost. Scientists are still studying carbon nanomaterials and other nanotube technologies to physically reconstruct the microscopic structure of the battery to achieve better performance and durability.

Some projects want to change the battery material, and some just want to improve the existing lithium battery technology. Research shows that silica sponge (Silicon sponge) has been able to improve the performance of lithium batteries, because it has ultra-thin Super Capacitor board, can be used as an independent energy.

That sounds pretty good, but what devices use these batteries? No, because none of these technologies are commercially available.

If there is a glimmer of hope, it is amprius. The Silicon Valley start-up has just produced a new lithium-ion battery, which can add about 20% more capacity than existing batteries. Unlike other new battery technologies, the company's products have begun to ship. They have financed 30 million of billions of dollars and are expected to develop more than 50% of the existing lithium-ion battery capacity.

It is hoped that this goal can be achieved as soon as possible. But still, the capacity of mobile batteries cannot be changed substantially. Developing more advanced battery technologies as quickly as possible has become a priority, and if the day comes too late, the future of mobile technology could stall.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)