Improving the battery

New York Times columnists figured out how modern devices will get a more powerful battery

Author: Nastya Prazdnichnaya

Brian Chen and Nick Bilton of The New York Times look at what needs to be done to get a longer-lasting battery. And just in time: there are already rumors around Apple about the use of solar energy in future watches, and Google Glass glasses are still not suitable for constant use due to a weak battery. TJournal publishes a translation of the material.

For the next (or subsequent) breakthrough smartphone, the usual battery may no longer be the only power source. In return, it will be able to receive energy from the air or recharge itself from a TV, cellular networks or Wi-Fi signals.

According to an ex-Apple employee, the company's engineers have been trying for years to create "smart charging" by adding a solar battery to the iPhone and iPod. And they're still experimenting with solar energy, according to two current employees.

Batteries, the poor cousin of computer chips, are currently experiencing a fever in research-crazed Silicon Valley.

Because as tech companies look to expand their business into wearables like fitness bands, glasses and smartwatches, battery technology limitations could be the biggest challenge to growing sales and increasing profits. Consumers may not want to wear a wrist-worn computer like the one Apple is working on or Google's smart glasses if the gadgets will only last a few hours and must be removed to recharge.

Shyamnath Gollakota shows off battery-free devices he developed with his students at the University of Washington in Seattle. (Stuart Isett, The New York Times)

The race is on - both in terms of finding an alternative to the traditional battery, and in terms of trying to make the battery last longer.

Consumers will say, “Give us a better battery because this one drains too quickly,” said Mujeeb Ijaz, chief technology officer of A123 Systems, a company that makes batteries for electric vehicles and invests in startups developing new battery cell technologies.

“Five years ago there was no such need,” he continued. “And now this is an important question for the market, and developers are meeting and discussing their needs and how much investment will be required in research and development?”

And although the speed of computer chips has doubled every few years, and digital screens have become much brighter and more contrasty, battery technology has remained largely stuck in the twentieth century. Device makers were hoping for gradual improvements in the performance of conventional lithium-ion batteries combined with more energy-efficient chips and screens.

Part of the problem is that many new energy technologies are difficult to secure. A faulty battery could potentially turn into a miniature bomb. Therefore, products require careful inspection by regulatory organizations before hitting store shelves.

But even if a new energy system is approved, it often requires established brands like Apple, Samsung or Microsoft to adopt it before the average consumer will trust it.

Some in Silicon Valley, like Tony Fadell, a former senior director of iPod and iPhone product development, believe it would be wiser to focus on improving batteries and other components in incremental steps rather than trying to reinvent the battery itself.

"I think it's foolish to hope and bet on new battery technology," said Mr. Fadell, who now heads the home appliance company Nest, which was bought by Google last month . "You can't wait for battery technology to come because it's moving incredibly slowly."

Fadell, often called "one of the fathers of the iPod" because he helped design the first version of Apple's iconic music player, says Apple has been trying to build solar panels into iPhones and iPods for years. The technology was impractical, he said, because outdoors people tend to keep their devices in their pockets, and indoor artificial light sources can generate only a small amount of power.

Today's latest Apple products, including the latest MacBook Air, iPad and iPhone, rely more on energy-efficient processors and software algorithms than on the battery itself to save energy. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on future products and technologies. But there is evidence that the company is working on improving batteries.

So, over the past few years, Apple has hired engineers with experience in energy technology and battery design from companies like Tesla, Toyota and A123 Systems. Last year, Apple bought Passif Semiconductor, a startup that developed extremely low-power chips.

According to an informed source, for its watches, Apple also tested a method of charging the battery wirelessly through magnetic induction. A similar technology is already used in some Nokia smartphones - when the phone is placed on the charging pad, an electric current creates a magnetic field and voltage, which charges the phone.

Sources close to the company say Apple has also been experimenting with new charging methods for potential smartwatches, although such experiments may be years away from being implemented. The watch is expected to have a curved display, and one idea is to embed a solar cell-like layer into the screen, which means the device will be powered by daylight.

iPhone with portable charger. Apple is working to extend battery life. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

In the fall, Apple posted a job listing for engineers who specialize in solar energy.

Another Apple experiment involved charging the battery through movement. This method is already used in many modern devices. According to a 2009 Apple patent , hand movements activate a tiny charger that, when walked, generates power for the device.

In July, Apple received a patent for a flexible battery that could be built into a watch or tablet. Although it is a traditional battery, it will be thin and curved, so it can be combined with a flexible solar cell layer.

Google is also looking for new battery technologies to extend the battery life of smartphones. "People don't want to be running around looking for a charger at three o'clock every day," says Mark Randall, senior vice president of supply chain and operations at Motorola, which Google said last week it would sell to Lenovo.

in mind Samsung is also developing new battery types with wearables . The company introduced compact curved batteries that can be installed in bracelets. And last year it introduced the Dream Battery, which uses solid electrolytes instead of the liquid or polymer common to lithium-ion batteries. This eliminates the risk of explosion and eliminates other safety concerns in flexible electronics.

Universities and startups are also making efforts—some even as ambitious as Apple—and this may be just as pie in the sky for them. However, they are attracting the attention of venture capitalists. For example, well-known investors such as Founders Fund, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Andreessen Horowitz are backing uBeam, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup that is developing a system for extracting energy from air into devices. The technology uses piezoelectricity, a method of charging through vibration of certain crystals and ceramics.

“Battery technology is lagging far behind mobile advances, while power consumption is rising as users demand more and more from their devices,” said Meredith Perry, founder of uBeam.

“When wireless power is everywhere, battery life and charging current will no longer be important factors for mobile devices because they will be constantly charging,” Ms. Perry says.

Yi Cui, a Stanford University professor who founded the startup Amprius, is working on the possibility of replacing the carbon anode in lithium-ion batteries with silicon. Silicon, he says, has ten times the capacity of coal, but it expands and crumbles. So Mr. Koo and his team coated the silicon with a polymer, a soft and flexible substance similar to the material used for contact lenses. It instantly smoothes out cracks during battery operation.

Researchers at the University of Washington are also working on a method for wireless devices to communicate without any batteries. The technology involves using energy already in the air from TV, cellular networks and Wi-Fi, says Shyamnath Gollakota, a senior lecturer in computer science who is working on the project.

“The idea is essentially that we are surrounded by signals,” Gollakota says. “So why create new signals to enable communication?”

In a commercial smartphone, a battery will still be needed to run the screen and other functions, but the signal-collection method will allow phone calls and messages to be made without using additional power, he says.

Google considers creating an improved battery so important that this issue has reached the very top. During the year-end conference call, Larry Page, Google's chief executive, emphasized that battery life on mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones, is high on the list of things to reinvent . “There is a real opportunity to invent something new and improve the user experience,” he said.

This material is a translation of the original article " Building A Better Battery " by Brian Chen and Nick Bilton in The New York Times.

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