It appears that Apple might be looking to extend battery life in future Apple gear including the iPhone and MacBook Pros, with Apple apparently filing a patent application called “Battery with Multiple Jelly Rolls in a Single Pouch.”
Jelly rolls is of course another name for Swiss rolls which are found in rechargeable, cylindrical batteries such as a AA battery, and according to a patent filing the guys over at Apple Insider have discovered by way of Free Patents Online, it looks like Apple is looking at “expanding that jelly roll design.”
Apparently the “Battery with Multiple Jelly Rolls in a Single Pouch,” patent filing looks to improve existing lithium batteries that can be found in most electronic devices such as Apple’s iPhone, Macs and the Apple iPad.
According to Apple’s application lithium polymer batteries are convenient due to including flexible pouches containing cells, which can be fitted into small portable devices, with a lithium polymer battery achieving packaging efficiency between 90 and 95% if a jellyroll in enclosed in a pouch with multiple side-by-side pouches forming the battery.
Apples proposal takes things a step further designing a pouch containing not one jellyroll but sets of jell rolls along with a separator dividing the cathode and anode.
The “Battery with Multiple Jelly Rolls in a Single Pouch,” application says, “The use and placement of multiple jelly rolls of different lengths and thicknesses within a pouch may allow the creation of a custom battery cell that maximizes the use of free space within a portable electronic device and provides greater capacity, packing efficiency, and/or voltage than battery cells that contain only one jelly roll per pouch.”
Word is the patent application was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on January the 26th 2010 by Apple with invention credits to Richard M. Mank, Taisup Hwang and Ramesh C. Bhardwaj.
Yes, well all very technical I must say, and to be quite honest I don’t really know how batteries work as long as they deliver the power expected. Of course filing a patent doesn’t mean we will be seeing better battery life in electronics just yet, but judging from the patent filing it does appear that Apple is at least looking at the possibility of extended battery life for future Apple gear, whether that becomes a reality remains to be seen.