MIT Develops More Efficient Analog Circuits for Consumer Electronics

CBSC analog circuits developed by MIT

We consumers are hoping that longer lasting batteries like those using hydrogen fuel cell technology would come out soon enough to power our mobile phones, cameras and other digital doodads. The increasingly feature-laden consumer electronics has far outpaced developments in battery technology, which seemed to have been stuck in the Li-Ion and NiMH quagmire.

Now, some folks at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) are tackling a different approach to the battery drain problem. Instead of developing a better battery, they are trying to change how consumer electronics consume power.

And they are close to perfecting such a technology. They have developed a new analog circuit system by replacing traditional signal converter circuits with comparator-based switch capacitor (CBSC) circuits. They have shown that CBSC circuits could deliver the same function by consuming only a small amount of power.

We could see commercialization of this technology in about three years from now, just in time perhaps for the new fuel-cell batteries to come out. By then we’ll have more efficient electronics powered by longer-lasting batteries. Now, that would be convergence.

[Via: DigitalCameraInfo.com]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.