If you’re complaining about your mobile devices constantly draining their battery, it looks like smartphones will be able to last a month without running out of juice in the relatively near future. Cambridge University scientists are working on a microchip that can work efficiently enough to require devices to be charged only 12 times a year.
Vaire, the team’s commercial arm, stands out as one of a dozen semiconductor startups the government is backing to put the UK at the forefront of the industry. The country’s Minister of Technology, Paul Scully, says semiconductors are the foundation of the modern world and are vital in everything from powering electric vehicles to fighting diseases.
Vaire’s microchip, which could increase the battery life of smartphones, is the brainchild of a team of mathematical researchers at the University of Cambridge. The idea behind this microchip is to design a silicon chip processor that requires almost zero energy to operate. Such a processor will mean that devices need less of a better battery.
Although there is little publicly available information on this subject so far, Sean Redmond, director of SiliconCatalyst.UK, which is running the project, said: “If they can actually deliver on this incredible claim, it means you’ll have a mobile phone that will last a month, not a day.” He continued: “No one in the world today has made this a reality with a semiconductor chip; “If anyone can do it, it will be this team in Cambridge.”
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