New Industry Products

CAP-XX Announces BriteSound Power Architecture for Mobile Phones

June 12, 2007 by Jeff Shepard

CAP-XX Ltd. announced its BriteSound power architecture for mobile phones. In a BriteSound phone, a CAP-XX supercapacitor is claimed to provide a boost in peak power (more than 5W) which can double and sometimes triple audio power for richer-sounding music, and eliminate the buzzing and distortion that’s common when transmitting wireless data while listening to music.

"With MP3-ready handsets growing in popularity, consumers want an iPod-quality audio experience without the distortion that interrupts music when the phone has to handle other peak-power functions," said CAP-XX CEO Anthony Kongats. "We are working with key mobile-phone manufacturers and expect the first designs that are power-boosted by our supercapacitors to hit the market in 2008."

In the BriteSound power architecture, a 2.4mm-thin, 0.55F, 85mΩ dual-cell CAP-XX HS206 supercapacitor delivers 5W power-bursts to drive peak-power functions such as audio and LED Flash. A battery covers the phone’s average audio power needs of 0.5 to 1W, recharging the supercapacitor between bursts. This is said to leave enough battery power to handle data transfers and network polls without compromising audio power, eliminating both the distortion and "clicks" normally heard.

The supercapacitor powers the audio amplifier at 5V, compared to 3.6V directly from a battery, thereby doubling peak audio power for full-sounding music with a strong bass beat. The supercapacitor also reduces noise by supplying peak power with less voltage droop than the battery would, and eliminates any 217Hz buzz when a GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone transmits by protecting the audio amplifier from other peak loads the battery supplies such as the RF Power Amplifier.

Because the supercapacitor supplies high-peak currents, designers can use higher-quality 4mΩ instead of standard 8mΩ speakers, further doubling peak audio power. Designers also save space and cost because they can size the phone’s battery and power circuitry to cover average power consumption rather than peak loads.