Mobile phone hardware has entered a development bottleneck. How can NiMH battery pack technology make breakthroughs in the future?

　　Many friends may have discovered the "extreme law" of today's smartphone development: there are more and more processor cores, and the screens are getting bigger and bigger. With a ten-core CPU, 8GB RAM, and 4K resolution, the hardware indicators of smartphones are soaring.

　　Indeed, the improvement of mobile phone hardware performance can bring us a better experience, and in some places it has even exceeded the impact of smart terminals such as computers. But I don’t know if you have noticed that with the rapid improvement of mobile phone hardware, power consumption has become more and more intense, but mobile phone NiMH battery pack technology does not seem to keep up with the rapid development of hardware.

　　Although the performance improvement of mobile phones is good, as a portable mobile phone, it is equivalent to a brick when it is out of power, and the theory of "mobile phones replacing PCs" has become empty talk. From this point of view, what is choking the development of smartphones is, after all, the battery. In response to this, how will mobile phone manufacturers respond in the future? How will mobile phone NiMH battery pack technology make breakthroughs in the future? Let’s discuss it with the author.

　　Is a thinner body more beautiful, or is it a compromise for NiMH battery pack life?

　　In the current mobile phone market, it is almost difficult to buy a smartphone that has both appearance and performance and NiMH battery pack life.

　　The current limitations of lithium NiMH battery pack technology require manufacturers to make choices in terms of appearance and NiMH battery pack life. If you want a mobile phone with longer NiMH battery pack life, you must expand the lithium NiMH battery pack capacity. The expansion of NiMH battery pack capacity will increase the size of the lithium battery. Correspondingly, The mobile phone will also become larger and thicker, even affecting the ability to hold it in one hand.

　　Looking at the current mobile phone development trends, we can also see the choices of mobile phone manufacturers. The current popular designs such as bezel-less, full-screen, and in-screen fingerprint scanners are obviously made for appearance. On the other hand, on the consumer side, the appearance of mobile phones has also become the first choice for users when purchasing mobile phones. A more fashionable and better-looking appearance will attract more consumers. Many consumers buy.

　　Of course, there are a large number of people who would rather have NiMH battery pack life, so there are also some models that compromise on NiMH battery pack life to solve this part of the pain point. However, these models often have brick-like thick bodies, which are cumbersome to carry around.

　　Curve to save the country, review of fast charging technology

　　In order to ensure the power required for long-term operation of mobile phones and the market demand for thinner and more beautiful mobile phones, many manufacturers have built-in batteries with the largest possible capacity. However, the increase in NiMH battery pack capacity will lead to an increase in the charging time of mobile phones. Therefore, many manufacturers have racked their brains on charging technology, and the fast charging solution that saved the country was born.

　　Currently, the more popular fast charging solutions include Qualcomm QC, MediaTek PEP, OPPOVOOC, Huawei FCP/Supercharge, USBPD, etc. Although both are used to quickly charge mobile phone batteries, the principles are different. It is common for homes to be filled with mobile phone chargers. Each brand of mobile phone needs a corresponding charger for fast charging. In the past, one charger was compatible with all mobile phone fast chargers. That era has long since become a thing of the past.

　　As we all know, P = UI (electric power = voltage X current), improving charging efficiency is nothing more than increasing the current or voltage. These fast charging solutions are mainly divided into two major solutions, one is a high voltage and low current fast charging solution, and the other is a low voltage and high current fast charging solution.

　　Common solutions that use the first solution include Qualcomm QuickCharge, MediaTek PEP, Huawei FCP, USB-PD, etc., while the second solution includes OPPO’s VOOC (5V/4A) and OnePlus’ Dash flash charge (5V/4A). , Meizu’s mCharge (5V/5A) and Huawei’s SuperCharge (4.5V/5A, 5V/4.5A).

　　The first type of high-voltage and low-current fast charging is to increase the charging voltage (around 7-20V) during the charging process to increase the charging power. The charging process of mobile phones without fast charging is generally to first reduce the 220V voltage to 5V through the charging head, and then the internal circuit of the mobile phone Reduce the 5V voltage to 4.2V and then transfer the power to the battery. Heat energy will be generated during the entire voltage reduction process.

　　The second type of low-voltage and high-current fast charging is to increase the current when the voltage is constant (4.5V-5V). Generally, a parallel circuit is used for shunting. Under constant voltage, after parallel shunting, the pressure shared by each circuit is smaller. If the same process is performed in a mobile phone, the pressure each circuit will bear will be smaller.

　　For example, VOOC flash charging increases the cross-sectional area of the resistor by increasing the number of charging cable lines/number of NiMH battery pack contacts, reducing the resistance value and improving the carrying capacity of large currents, while Huawei SuperCharge fast charging allows the charger to directly output to the mobile phone. Low voltage to avoid high heat generated by the "high voltage to low voltage" conversion inside the fuselage.

　　In addition, there are some special fast charging methods, such as vivo's dual-engine flash charging, which uses dual charging chips to charge in parallel, which is twice as fast as ordinary charging technology. These various fast charging technologies are all developed by the manufacturers themselves. The conditions for realizing fast charging are demanding. Mobile phones, chargers, and data cables correspond one to one and are indispensable. But when it comes to Apple, it still uses super slow charging (5V/1A) that has been lagging behind for thousands of years.

　　Breaking through the bottleneck: graphene batteries and super batteries emerge

　　The fast charging solutions of various manufacturers to save the country only address the symptoms but not the root cause. To trace back to the root cause, a qualitative leap in NiMH battery pack development is needed. Fortunately, momentum is already emerging, and the development of graphene batteries was smelled at MWC and CES last year.

　　Graphene NiMH battery pack is a new energy NiMH battery pack developed in 2004. It has attracted much attention since its inception and is currently expected to be a breakthrough in NiMH battery pack technology in the electric vehicle industry. Graphene itself is an ideal conductor material with excellent strength and flexibility. It can greatly improve the NiMH battery pack life of mobile phones and compress the charging time from hours to just a few minutes. At the same time, graphene polymer NiMH battery pack The weight is only 50% of traditional batteries and the cost will be 77% lower than lithium batteries.

　　A recent TV news report stated that Zhejiang University in China has developed an aluminum-graphene super NiMH battery pack based on graphene batteries. Experimental data shows that fast charging can fully charge the NiMH battery pack in 1.1 seconds. The report also stated that this super NiMH battery pack has ultra-high durability and safety, can undergo 250,000 cycles, and maintains 91% of its specific capacity. Because the super NiMH battery pack is a flexible material, it can still maintain its capacity when bent and will not explode in case of fire.

　　From the current point of view, graphene batteries and super batteries are the batteries that can best break through the bottleneck of smartphones, and are also the products closest to commercialization in the industry. However, since it is still in the laboratory stage, mass production is currently difficult, and it may have to wait until it is transferred to the civilian field.

　　With the increase in mobile phone hardware and functions, people's demand for mobile phone batteries is also increasing. The development of smartphones is like a wooden barrel. What chokes the development of smartphones is ultimately the battery. If smartphones want to go further in the future, the shortcoming of the NiMH battery pack must be resolved. Here we may look forward to the faster commercialization of graphene batteries and super batteries, as well as the emergence of better NiMH battery pack materials.

　　However, although the hardware improvements of smartphones may seem good, many of them are actually just gimmicks promoted by manufacturers. Looking at the mobile phones in the entire industry, most of them are already in a state of excess performance for consumers, but the excess performance will still consume power.

　　It should be noted that this is the result of consumers' backlash against manufacturers. Therefore, now that there is no breakthrough in NiMH battery pack technology, I hope that many consumers will be more rational in purchasing mobile phones with suitable hardware. This is the rational attitude that consumers should maintain towards purchasing mobile phones.

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