Nokia Phone technology - Battery Power
Nokia is deeply involved in research that will increase the mobile phone battery power. As increasingly more technologies and applications are incorporated into mobile phones, ever greater demands are place on the phone battery. The approach is multipronged:
- Increase the efficiency of the phone electronics in order to reduce battery drain
- Improve the efficiency of the battery so increase its power/size ratio and reduce charging time
- Improve the way batteries are charged
In terms of improving efficiency, one item that is being improved is the display screen. Approximately 50% of battery power is used by the screen. New display technologies are being advanced that will reduce the battery drain by a half. One way to achieve this is by using improved LCD technologies that require much less backlight and achieve brighter and more vivid colours. Another approach is to remove the backlight totally and illuminate the display around its periphery using light emitting diodes.
Phone electronics are also being improved with regard to power savings. New power supply chips that use micro-magnets are being developed that improve power supply efficiency from 50% to 90%. Further improvements in efficiency are being attempted by using multi-core processors with each core being responsible for one activity; say making a call, or sending an email. When a core is not required it could be powered down, thus saving energy.
New battery technologies are being developed that employ nano-technology to produce coated lithium nanospheres. These are used to replace the standard battery lithium cathode. They are far more efficient at accepting charge, and it is anticipated that it would be possible to recharge a phone battery in around ten second rather than hours. Another approach is to use devices that convert radio waves into DC power that can be used to continually trickle charge batteries. Also kinetic batteries are being developed. These use a magnet which moves through a coil and is activated by motion and in doing so generated electricity which is used to charge the battery.
Nokia is at the forefront of these technologies and it is anticipated that they will soon be appearing in next generation phones.