14 DAY TRIAL // Most tablet and smartphone owners these days can relate to what I’m about to say. Charging our devices takes way too long. That's because a lot of power gets lost via the chunky power converters everybody gets.
But a better way for charging tablets might be coming our way soon, curtsey of the startup Transphorm, Android Community mentions. The team behind the project is currently working on a way to charge your slate, without losing any energy in the process.
Power grids out there use alternative currents, but our tablets necessitate direct current to charge, so in converting the energy, 50% is lost to the elements.
The problem is most devices chargers (power converters) use silicon parts to port life force to your tablet, but the upcoming Transphorm product will use gallium nitride instead. This semiconductor material is currently used in LEDs.
The only downside is that this process is quite expensive, but now the Transphorm team explains it has found a way to do it low-cost. The start-up has also acquired a Fujitsu division that was working on a rival technology and now the two of them will work in concert to release the technology to the masses as soon as possible.
With the help of Fujitsu, the start-up is probably one step closer to start mass production as it already has a pilot production line set up in Santa Barbara, California.
The invention has bigger repercussions when you take into consideration that 10% of the energy used in the US is wasted through inefficient power consumption.
The start-up has been around for six years so it has had some time to develop the new charging platform.
Interestingly enough, Transphorm has managed to attract some capital to fund its research processes, with the company gathering up to $100 / €73 million in total. The investor list includes Lux Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and Foundation Capital, all big names of the industry.