We've all been there, our phone is at less than 20% capacity and we have somewhere we'd rather be than charging our device. To compensate cellphone manufacturers have been doing an impressive job of designing faster charging phones. In many cases allowing users to go from almost zero to 50% in less than 30 minutes, not too shabby, but people will always demand better. A big issue is the fact that chemically lithium ion batteries are physically limited as to how much energy they can absorb in a given amount of time before they become a potential fire hazard. Researchers have already created energy storage technologies that are capable of absorbintg energy incredibly quickly in the form of ultra-capacitors, devices that store their electrical energy non-chemically, fantastic for rapid charging , but overall they have a lower energy density and don't hold a charge as effectively. What I would like to propose is a smart phone case that allows ultra-capacitors to augment a phone's internal battery. Imagine a phone case similar to the many external battery cases on the market today, with a few key functional differences.
1. purpose, instead of acting as a charge carrier that is always trying to store a given number of amp-hours of electrical enegy the capacitors would be intended to rapidly charge in parallel with the battery's normal charing process, but once unplugged the ultracapacitor would gradually provide charge to the phone.
2. AC/DC conversion, as capacitors are already used in helping to convert alternating current to direct current it should be reasonable to design an adapter into the system, con, you will need a new cable to connect the phone into the wall that is seperate from your USB cable (never said the idea was perfect)
3. safer than standard lithium ion batteries, as ultracapacitors do not suffer from the same material fatigue concerns as lithium ion, there is less likely that the external battery would harm the phone
Idealized use case
you're at the airport and need to top off your phone before your flight, and even quick charge won't be fast enough, fortunately you've bought the UltraCapCase(tm) for your smart phone. Within 15 secondes of the case being plugged into the wall it is fully charged and supplying your phone with sweet sweet electrons. The flight attendent makes the announcement 'last call for flight 61' you quickly unplug your device and get into line. Your phone continues to charge off of the case's capacitors, had you used the standard rapid charge plug you might have gained 2% additional battery life, the UltraCapCase will gently supply power to your device providing enough energy to get your device to a solid 50% capcity.
the narrative is technically possible (broad strokes I didn't do an energy density check on how big the case would be etc...) but I think it has the potential as product.
other thoughts, as ultra capacitors have the ability to be charged/discharged 100's of thousands of times, vs lithium ion which will start to noticably degrade after 1-3,000 cycles it would be possible that user's would have phone cases that were still useful long after the phone they used expired, alternative options, don't do it as a phone case but an external battery with USB ports, which gives a few more years of life, but as USB continues to evolve it is hard to be confident that the USB ports you design the battery around will still be around. The better long term solution (not necessarily for consumer aesthetics) would be to design ultra-capacitor cells/control circuitry that is intended to be reused after the external battery or case is no longer useful, so your smart phone case could eventually be used to be a small part of improving grid reliability in your community.
thanks for reading if you have any thoughts, questions, please feel free to post
1. purpose, instead of acting as a charge carrier that is always trying to store a given number of amp-hours of electrical enegy the capacitors would be intended to rapidly charge in parallel with the battery's normal charing process, but once unplugged the ultracapacitor would gradually provide charge to the phone.
2. AC/DC conversion, as capacitors are already used in helping to convert alternating current to direct current it should be reasonable to design an adapter into the system, con, you will need a new cable to connect the phone into the wall that is seperate from your USB cable (never said the idea was perfect)
3. safer than standard lithium ion batteries, as ultracapacitors do not suffer from the same material fatigue concerns as lithium ion, there is less likely that the external battery would harm the phone
Idealized use case
you're at the airport and need to top off your phone before your flight, and even quick charge won't be fast enough, fortunately you've bought the UltraCapCase(tm) for your smart phone. Within 15 secondes of the case being plugged into the wall it is fully charged and supplying your phone with sweet sweet electrons. The flight attendent makes the announcement 'last call for flight 61' you quickly unplug your device and get into line. Your phone continues to charge off of the case's capacitors, had you used the standard rapid charge plug you might have gained 2% additional battery life, the UltraCapCase will gently supply power to your device providing enough energy to get your device to a solid 50% capcity.
the narrative is technically possible (broad strokes I didn't do an energy density check on how big the case would be etc...) but I think it has the potential as product.
other thoughts, as ultra capacitors have the ability to be charged/discharged 100's of thousands of times, vs lithium ion which will start to noticably degrade after 1-3,000 cycles it would be possible that user's would have phone cases that were still useful long after the phone they used expired, alternative options, don't do it as a phone case but an external battery with USB ports, which gives a few more years of life, but as USB continues to evolve it is hard to be confident that the USB ports you design the battery around will still be around. The better long term solution (not necessarily for consumer aesthetics) would be to design ultra-capacitor cells/control circuitry that is intended to be reused after the external battery or case is no longer useful, so your smart phone case could eventually be used to be a small part of improving grid reliability in your community.
thanks for reading if you have any thoughts, questions, please feel free to post
