Tuesday July 21, 2009 at 15:08
Subject: Idea: Hybrid laptop batteries.
Keywords:
Batteries, Ideas
Posted by: Sean Reifschneider
They now have "carbon nanotube" (what can't they make better?) capacitors
called "super capacitors" which are very high capacity for their size.
Unlike regular batteries, they don't really age out, but they don't quite
have the capacity of regular batteries. But they can also charge very
quickly.
I could imagine a hybrid laptop, with a regular battery and a
supercapacitor, either co-located with the battery or or as a separate
battery pack, which the system could use as a "front line" power buffer in
front of the battery. This may allow longer battery life through fewer
cycles of the main battery (only depleting the main battery if the
super capacitor ran out), and very quick charging for a "topping off".
Benefits that both laptops/netbooks and other electronic devices like
phones could benefit from.
Many laptops include the ability to take two battery packs -- like my
current laptop can take a second battery in place of the DVD burner, and it
will drain from and charge to that in preference to the main battery.
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| Comment |
Tkil Subject: The problem with supercapacitors |
Hm. It could work, but a few things that get in the way:
- 1. Self-discharge rate is worse than Li-Ion. For the application
you're specifying, that's not a big deal, as we expect to charge it
every day.
2. Linear voltage curve. Unlike most rechargables, the discharge
curve is linear -- which means that you can only use the very first
part of the discharge curve without expensive (and inefficient)
DC/DC voltage regulators. Not sure how that compares to the
circuitry already required for Lithium-based cells, though.
| Comment |
Author:
Sean Reifschneider Subject: Indeed... |
I didn't mean to imply that it would be as easy as just dropping a capacitor into the battery, but it seems like it'd be doable for the charging circuitry they have to design into laptops to support this sort of a hybrid.
Sean