Things you must know about smartphone and tablet batteries

When it comes to the computing products, Smartphones are at the forefront. These smart devices are penetrating the Indian and the world market at the lightening speed. However, one big challenge for smartphone manufacturers that still remains quite prominent is, “ how to match the pace of improving features with the battery life”?

Smartphones are evolving in terms of performance, higher-speed data, better video, and gaming, a more vivid and detailed screen but their Li-ion pouch cell batteries can’t keep up this pace. Every smartphone or tablet user requires a battery that works seamlessly for longer hours. This is the reason why smartphone manufacturers are spending millions to figure out how these Li-Ion batteries can match the advancing features of smartphones.

So, to help you make a perfect choice, let us know few things about smartphone/tablet batteries.

Battery bag: Smartphone and tablets comprise of Li-Ion Pouch cells that contain layered anode and cathode sheets with separators and a permeating liquid electrolyte among all these layers. A single Li-Ion Pouch cell is a sealed bag of these cathode and anode sheets. In a smartphone, there is usually one such cell while in tablets there are several cells. At the end of the battery, there is a printed circuit board that is connected to the positive and negative terminals of each cell and provides protection against short circuits. These pouch cells are fragile and their durability depends on the smartphone case.

Keep it cool: It is very important to maintain a cool climate for smartphone batteries. The standard Li-ion chemistry depends on an electrolyte that reacts with residual moisture to create hydrofluoric acid, the most corrosive of all chemical compounds. This process doubles when there is an increase in the temperature thus reducing cycle time and run time of batteries over a period of time.

Runtime depends on density: The run-time of a battery depends on the energy density of a Li-ion pouch cell. As the electronics are becoming more advanced with dazzling features, the battery manufacturer in India and other countries are working more to increase the energy density. This is why non-replaceable Li-Ion pouch batteries are more popular as there is no need of a protective case, which in reality is of no use apart from protection. Without a protective case, companies manufacture batteries that are thinner and pack more run-time.

New chemistry for batteries: Battery manufacturing in India is mainly based on Li-Ion chemistry. To improve the feature vs. run-time battle, smartphone manufacturers are experimenting with this chemistry to improve energy density. For this, a new Li-Imide electrolyte is being used for future batteries that do not generate hydrofluoric acid thus giving thermal stability to the battery and improves its life.

Smartphone batteries are heavier: As the smartphones are getting smarter allowing us to do multiple tasks such as video watching, internet surfing and playing games, their battery needs to provide more power to larger screens and for graphics. Therefore, the batteries of smartphones are heavier.

Factors affecting energy density: Energy density of a battery is affected by the width and length of Li-ion pouch cell.  When the pouch is in packaging, the volumetric density decreases as the pouch gets thinner and volume increases is that of packaging.  When other things are equal, a narrow and thick battery gives better volumetric density than a square one as the PCB installed on the short edge of a narrow battery gives more room for active materials to store actual energy.

Battery manufacturers are continuously working on the challenges faced by Li-Ion batteries and putting in efforts to take them to next level. It is expected that new active materials with new electrolyte can give a 20% boost in run-time per charge in the same size battery. we have already got some improvements in the batteries and some more future generation batteries are yet to come in the market.