US scientists have created a new cheap circuit that could make smartphones and similar devices two times faster than the current standard speed.
This discovery will enable smartphone users to receive and send data at the same time.
Current circuits are only allowed to send and receive data individually because there is currently no technology to easily distinguish these two functions simultaneously.
New cheap circuit similar to two people conversing
According to Tom Simonite during the Technology Review at MIT, when a smartphone accesses the Internet using a cellular tower, its radio goes back and forth between receiving and sending, in the same way as when two people are conversing.
However, with the technological development made by University of Texas’ team of researchers, a new circuit known as the circulator, will be able to pick out and differentiate between incoming and outgoing data on the same frequency.
This new cheap circuit can be built into smartphones and will increase the speed at which they are able to receive data by about 100%. Circulators are not exactly new because they have been around more than 6 decades and were used during the 1950s by radar systems to differentiate between signals. However they were only able to function with the aid of large magnets made from rare earth minerals.
US scientists confident with technology in new cheap circuit
So today, the new cheap circuit is so much better because they no longer require magnets. The new cheap circuit uses resonators that distribute wireless data signals in predetermined routes, in what is called the full duplex functionality.
It’s also very small at only 2 centimetres wide and the US scientists are very confident that they can be scaled down into miniature sizes.
Metamaterials expert Andrea Alu who is also the lead researcher Andrea Alù said,
“It’s very cheap, compact, and light. It’s ideal for a cell phone.”
There is no doubt that in the very near future, the circulators will be integrated into smartphones and wireless devices so that they can be faster in sending and receiving data signals.
Even better news is that there is no need for cell phone manufacturers to redesign their units because the technology is so simple, small and versatile that it can be added to existing wires.
For people who are constantly complaining about the slowness of speed of their smartphones and tablets, they no longer have to worry about such problems in the near future. In the coming years or even months, one can expect that the latest smartphones will be faster when browsing the Web, sending emails, chatting on Skype and so on.
With the new cheap circuit which can be manufactured and built into wireless devices, it will not be long until the technology becomes mainstream.
