A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge could soon come up with a battery charging system that can fully charge depleted smartphone batteries within 5 minutes according to a report by the Independent. The research team is led by Dr. Ashray Rao of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. The team examined the charging and discharging behavior of lithium-ion batteries and developed a mechanism to control the charging speed that resulted in super-fast charging of batteries.
Recently, Xiaomi previewed a fast-charging system called 200W HyperCharge, capable of achieving a full charge for the Mi 11 within 8 minutes. The drawback for the Xiaomi system is that it does not apply to other devices apart from the Mi 11.
The revolutionary Cambridge charging technology is reported to be low cost and could scale up the battery’s charging cycle while avoiding overheating. The opportunities for this research are outstanding. It offers a huge change in technology speed to keep up with the inner workings of the lithium-ion battery. It is not known yet how soon the research will transit from the lab to the market within the next few years.
The quest for the ultimate charging solution is still on. A raft of different approaches has been mooted, including a technique that will use sound energy to charge phones and other devices. However, these emerging technologies are seriously limited as they are yet to achieve the breakthrough needed to transit these technologies to tangible products.
It has to be noted that tremendous progress has been made in the evolution of batteries and their accompanying charging systems. It is now possible to have super-fast charging, both for wired and wireless settings. Just recently, Infinix unveiled its 2021 flagship concept smartphone, packing a 160W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging. This new system is equally faster than Infinix’s which is touted to fully charge a dead 4000mAh battery in 10 minutes.
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