Increase Your Cell Phone Battery Using Multi-Core Voltage Regulator

Today’s smart phones are actually getting smarter by the coming day and the applications supported by newer phones are much more. Needless to say, to run this increased number of programs the phone needs more battery power. One option is to provide a high power battery. But then it would amount to additional weight and size. It is simply impossible (with currently available technology) to cram any more material in an 8-10mm thick cell phone. The same problem of increased weight will be faced by the laptops of we are to push up battery power any further. What to do then?

Wonyoung Kim, an engineer at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has come up with device called as a multi-core voltage regulator (MCVR) which is said to have features that can boost the battery performance up to 20% more. There is no rocket science behind this thing but a simple logic that just switch off whatever you are not using and save battery. So as described by Kim himself, it is like switching off the lights before leaving the room.

In a simple language, this chip has got algorithms those can detect the parts of a processor that are actually in use and those which are not. Then the device simply cuts down the amount of power supplied to the parts that are not in use. The MCVR is nothing but a DC-DC converter with 2.4(V) as the rated input voltage. This device can scale it down to a range of 0.4 to 1.4(V). Added advantage is that the output voltage can change at a rate of 1(V) / 20 (nanosecs.) (You may call this as its slew rate!). The regulator is provided on chip. This reduces the length that a signal has to travel thus pumping the efficiency up.

Voltage regulators available today are off-board and bulky. The most expected market to this product is the cell phones. The device can be easily added to the primary chip design with an additional cost of mere 10%. However in return we get 20% or more savings on power consumption. This can lead to further decrease in the size of cell phones and even laptops for that matter. We all know the joke of preparing your everyday’s tea over the heat sink of your laptop. The device can actually cut down the heat output by the processors. This will result into slimmer laptops too.