Last week the US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent detailing a new high voltage wall charger for iPhones and other iDevices, that will surpass the current 5 volts limit and go up to 20 volts. Well, since we’re not getting a huge battery anytime soon, we may at least get faster charging.
Apple claims that the size of the portable devices makes their power source usually too small and limited for the device, so the battery may need to be charged frequently. Depending on the device the battery time charge may range from 1-2 hours to over 12 hours. The main reason for such a long time is the voltage, that’s usually around 5 volts. Now, with the patent and the new tech it will reach 20 volts, but I expect this to only come to life in a future generation of Lightning.
I’m guessing this would require a change of port type, cable type and charger type, since it’s 4 times the voltage of the previous version. The patent also talks about a voltage regulator that offers an output voltage in the range of 1 to 20 V. I have to say that the iPads take a long while to charge, so this patent is useful.