Wireless Charging To Become More Accessible; Rising Concerns For Battery Life

Wireless charging is becoming the mainstream technology and will wireless charging pads will soon replace all charging cables. The latest one to join the herd to the future is Apple, bringing wireless charging to its iPhone 8 and iPhone X lineup.

The two smartphone giants, Apple and Samsung, both now offer wireless charging with the Qi specifications to their flagships. Samsung brought in wireless charging to charge the battery of its Galaxy flagship two years ago. Today, nearly 90 smartphone models use the Qi standards for wireless charging.

With the increasing demands in wireless charging, the automotive industry has also begun offering wireless charging docks in cars. Many companies like Audi, Chevrolet, KIA, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Cadillac, Lexus, Jaguar, Dodge and Chrysler, are now offering wireless charging facilities in many of their models.

With Apple joining the game, more models are expected to have wireless charging stations as the smartphone industry has now widely adopted the new method to charge smartphones. According to the Wireless Power Consortium, there is more than 5000 public QI charging tables all over the world, at public places like McDonald’s, Marriott, Ibis; at airports like the London Heathrow and Philadelphia; and in corporations like Facebook, Google, Deloitte, PwC and Cisco.

There has been a delay in popularising the introduction of wireless charging docks in cars. This was mainly to see which technology would Apple go for. According to a 2016 IHS Markit forecast, the wireless charging units exceeded more than 200 million units per year.

A survey by the IHS shows that 1 in 4 smartphone users use wireless charging and 98% of the users are expected to choose wireless charging in their next phone as well. This increasing adoption of wireless charging stations will surely make it easy to keep our smartphones fully juiced up all the time.

While this would make many users happy, there is a concern that arises in many people’s minds. Is it good for the battery to be fully charged at all times?

According to many experts, the electronics would not allow the battery to overcharge but keeping the battery at 100% will hasten the degradation of the battery. They say that the higher the state of the charging faster will be the degradation of the battery.

The frequency of charging is also a factor affecting the degradation. As the Lithium ions are charged and discharged over and over again, they lose their mobility to travel between the cathode and the anode.

Over time, the electrolyte medium degrades and this is also dependent on the state of the charge; the higher the state of the charge, the faster is the degradation of the electrolyte medium.

The conclusion is not to charge your battery from bottom to top and discharge it from top to bottom. The recommended cycle of the battery charge is between 45% and 55%. With sophisticated battery management systems and advances in mobile battery technologies, the damage to the battery for fully charging has been decreased but it is still believed to be there.