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What is the Future of Fast Charging?

Fast Charging Development

By Chandler BuffPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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Fast Charging

Abstract

People are get familiar with the fast charging today. Take Xiaomi’s newly released MI10 Extreme Commemorative Edition as an example. It can reach 41% after 5 minutes of charging, and it only takes 23 minutes to reach 100%. Compared with the previous 50W fast charging, 120W can be said to completely end the slow charging of mobile phones. How do mobile phone manufacturers do this? Will the charging time be shorter in the future?

120W Fast Charging?

Taking into account the battery's endurance, multiple charge pumps + multiple batteries will be the mainstream of 100W fast charging in the future. The fact is exactly the same. OPPO, Xiaomi, and iQOO all use a multi-cell solution for their own 120W fast charging. However, the popularity of 120W fast charging is ultimately due to two key components brought about by the progress of the supply chain: One is the charge pump, which can carry higher power, and the heat dissipation loss is further reduced; Second is the battery cell, the previous battery charging rate is 3C, which cannot adapt to the heat dissipation of hundreds of watts of fast charging. The 120W fast charging has improved the batteries right now.

In traditional smart phones, the battery cell is generally 3C, which represents the charging and discharging ratio of the battery. The higher the ratio, the stronger the charging and discharging capacity of the battery. The higher the fast charge, the more difficult it is to improve the energy density. The problem is that, under the limit of 3C, the power that the battery can output is limited, and if the discharge rate exceeds 3C, it reaches 5C or even 6C. The current that the battery can withstand will become larger.

From the perspective of the technologies adopted by Xiaomi, iQOO and OPPO, although they are similar, there are still many differences. The approach of iQOO may be the mainstream approach of other manufacturers in the future: the burden of 120W is assumed by the improved double charge pump, and the internal resistance is reduced with 6C batteries and array tabs to alleviate the heat of the fuselage. In iQOO’s solution, 6C batteries can allow a 2000 mAh battery to support a maximum current input of 12A. Charge pumps are connected in parallel to reduce heat dissipation. The batteries are connected in series to divide the voltage so that the internal circuit of the mobile phone can carry 120W.

OPPO has made improvements on the basis of iQOO's technology. Strictly speaking, its fast charging solution should be 125W. Starting from the era of VOOC flash charging, OPPO has focused on improving the original interface and data line design to form its own unique technology. For this 125W fast charge, OPPO has improved the contacts of the Type-C interface. It can withstand higher load currents, because three charge pumps in parallel are used to divide the voltage inside the fuselage. On the basis of iQOO, Xiaomi uses graphite as a substrate. Graphite can allow a large amount of lithium ions to be inserted in time and accelerate the speed of lithium ion exchange.

It can be seen that although the technical details are different, batteries with stronger charging and discharging capabilities, charge pumps with better carrying capacity, multi-cells and multi-pole ear designs are the mainstream of 120W fast charging. Due to the advancement of battery cell technology, the "battery loss" we were worried about before has not happened.

Is 240W on the way?

Although we already know that the birth of 120W fast charging is inseparable from the efforts of various manufacturers and the supply chain behind them. Let us have higher expectations for the future. Since 120W fast charging of mobile phones is no longer a dream, can we see higher charging power in the future? There are many challenges.

The first is the size of the charger. Since the popularization of gallium nitride materials with strong sensing ability and low heat generation, mobile phone chargers experienced a vigorous gallium nitride boom last year. In this 120W fast charging flagship, many GaN chargers are also included randomly. Compared with the popular GaN solutions on the market, the size of these chargers has reached the limit.

In addition, the power cord is also a problem. At present, both OPPO and iQOO need specially customized power cords to meet the current load of 6A or more. The thickness of the power cord and the protocol have all begun to become important factors restricting the progress of fast charging. In the next period of time, the technical update of the charging terminal will return to the unification of standards, and mobile phone manufacturers will mixing their own research and development results with the PD, Type-C and other standards.

Judging from the news of the supply chain, the application of the 120W fast charging technology has initially squeezed out the technical dividends, and the improvement of the charge pump and battery-carrying technology will not be achieved in a short time. The battery capacity of the mobile phone has just been maintained at about 4000 mAh, and the internal temperature sensing point also puts forward higher requirements on the internal design of the mobile phone. The dream of 240W fast charging may take a long time to come true.

Main Stream?

Looking back at the development history of smart phones, we will find that the birth of many technologies is inseparable from the popularization of large-screen mobile phones. The size of mobile phones has increased, improving the cameras, large battery fast charging, NFC, network standards and other technologies. That is, there is more room for development, but around 2017, the size of mobile phones has reached an end. After that, the development of the core technology of mobile phones mainly relied on the full-screen design: screen technology (package and drive), under-screen fingerprints, under-screen camera, these full-screen technologies actually have a prototype for a long time, but they only started after 2017. Fully utilized by mobile phone manufacturers.

Fortunately, in fast charging, we have seen the "Great Leap" of today's mobile phone manufacturers. Fast charging fully demonstrates the technological foundation and innovative spirit of mobile phone manufacturers, and has actually solved the problem since the birth of smart phones. Unlike eternal themes such as photography and performance, mobile phone battery life is limited by battery technology, but fast charging has been in the mainstream of the times since its birth to the present.

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