MAI residents invented the way to make the gadget work longer in winter

A team of graduate students and students of Moscow Aviation Institute developed a smart heating system for electronics. The invention will be able to significantly extend the operation time of any battery-powered gadgets in conditions of low and extremely low temperatures.

– Six months ago, a team of students and graduate students who wanted to do scientific work gathered at the Department of Digital Technologies and Information Systems. We were looking for area to develop. I suggested creating something that makes life easier in conditions of extremely low temperatures,” says Ekaterina Sevastyanova, a student at Institute No. 3 “Control Systems, Informatics and Power Engineering” of Moscow Aviation Institute.

She came to Moscow from Khanty-Mansiysk, where in winter there are frosts of up to 40 C degrees, and she knows firsthand about the problem: in the cold, the battery of a smartphone can get low in 15 minutes.

First, the developers created a prototype: a phone battery wrapped in a special fabric sheathed with wire was placed in a heat-insulating box.

“A current is supplied to the wire from the same battery through the board, the wire heats up and, in turn, heats the battery,” explains Ekaterina. – As soon as the battery warms up to the optimum plus 25 C degrees, the temperature sensor is triggered and the current stops flowing.”

The MAI residents have already tested their development in a climatic chamber at minus 40 C degrees successfully.

But the prototype is not suitable for life - the battery in the box will not fit in a smartphone, so now the developers are working on a phone case-book. The cover will be equipped with a heating cloth from the inside, and the entire phone, and not just the battery, will be heated.