Cellular phone charges could decline thanks to a recent invention of UW-Madison assistant professor Zhenqiang Ma.
Proving UW-Madison to be once again at the forefront of technological innovation, Ma has developed a device that prevents cell phones from overheating. This overheating, which cell-phone users can feel after a long conversation, causes batteries to wear out quickly.
With the help of some graduate students, Ma created and perfected a way to dissipate the heat throughout the entire phone rather than having it accumulate in the center. In practical terms, this extends battery life 30 to 50 percent, according to Ma. Ma added that cell phone users receive better reception over a longer distance as they move away from their cell-phone base tower with his development.
\I think within ten years or less all major cell phone makers will use this,"" Ma added.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is responsible for patenting and licensing Ma's advancement. Any royalties WARF garners from this patent, as with any of its patents, will be returned to the university to help fund future research and campus improvements. If Ma's development spreads as widely as he predicts, WARF could make a substantial profit.
""We don't invest in patenting and licensing unless we think it's an economically viable invention,"" said Andrew Cohn of WARF. ""If we make money, we then in fact take that and donate it to the university.""
Heightening the value of Ma's invention is that it can be used in all wireless communication products from wireless keyboards to wireless modems. Ma said it will also lighten the load on phone batteries as cell phones gain increasingly complex features like Web site display.
""This technology will allow you to make the next generation of cell phones with more advanced features,"" he forecasted.
Simply recharging cell phones less frequently would come as a blessing to many students like UW-Madison sophomore Tan?? Perrigoue. Involved in a long distance relationship, Perrigoue said she depends on her cell phone to keep in touch with her boyfriend.
""If we start talking for a really long time, my cell phone starts beeping. Then it will just disconnect and I have to charge my phone just to call him back and tell him that it's going to die again,"" she said.
