In this day and age, people hold their beloved smartphones as one of their most prized possessions. It’s the first thing people look at in the morning, and stays glued their side throughout the day. For many, a drained battery is the ultimate inconvenience. Apps are adopting data hungry features that drive already pricey data packages sky high. But Eta Devices, a spinoff of the Michigan Institute of Technology, may change all of that with a new technology that could extend battery life and conserve cell tower energy. The newly developed technology comes from a decade of MIT research. Eta Devices has invented a chip for smartphones and module for base stations that adjusts voltage supply to power amplifiers (an element that is designed to push the radio signal out through the phones’ antennas) as needed, instead of staying at max voltage at all times in preparation to send mass amounts of data, which drains battery and wastes half the power as heat.
By 2015, Eta Devices plans to install the technology in live base stations and estimates savings for a large carrier to be $100M in annual electricity costs. In addition to partnering with a large base-station manufacturer, they have discussed incorporating the chips in major manufacturer LTE-enabled smartphones which could double battery life. Eta Devices technology can enhance the telecommunications industry in a number of ways. It could drive down operating costs for base stations in developing countries that rely on expensive diesel for power, and significantly reduce greenhouse gases if carrier networks were to replace radio amplifiers. The high energy efficiency potential is extensive.
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