{"id":22565,"date":"2025-09-17T21:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/22565\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T21:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:28:08","slug":"the-iphone-airs-real-breakthrough-is-its-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/22565\/","title":{"rendered":"The iPhone Air\u2019s real breakthrough is its battery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An Image Credits:Apple <\/p>\n

The iPhone Air\u2019s thin design might be eye catching<\/a>, and the amount of engineering that went into miniaturizing its logic board is impressive. But according to Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO of battery materials manufacturer Sila<\/a>, the real breakthrough might lurk elsewhere inside the aluminum and glass enclosure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe battery in the new iPhone is pretty remarkable,\u201d Berdichevsky told TechCrunch. \u201cThe completely arbitrary, two-dimensional shape \u2014 you look at the shape, and it\u2019s pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got back from Asia and, and I got a chance to see some of these cells,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a revolutionary piece of battery tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berdichevsky knows a thing or two<\/a> about batteries. As Tesla\u2019s seventh employee, he led engineering on the original Roadster\u2019s battery, which became the template for subsequent Teslas. Today, he leads Sila, which is producing silicon anode materials for consumer electronics<\/a> and, soon, electric vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The iPhone Air\u2019s notched design is made possible by a technology Apple has patented<\/a> called a metal can battery. The key detail is in the name: a metal casing that surrounds the entire cell, adding strength and physical durability. Most batteries used in consumer electronics are pouch cells, which have a soft plastic casing that\u2019s cheap to manufacture and allows for some degree of swelling.<\/p>\n

Apple has used L-shaped batteries in iPhones for years. All lithium ion batteries swell to some degree, and the interior corner of the L becomes a pinch points when that swelling occurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are very finicky, and this basically makes it bulletproof. You can now build batteries in any two-dimensional shape you want,\u201d Berdichevsky said.<\/p>\n

Metal can batteries allow Apple to make the most of the small space within the iPhone Air. \u201cThey\u2019re able get very close to the edges,\u201d he said. It allows the battery to worm its way into whatever space is free after the various circuit boards have been positioned.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Berdichevsky thinks that most phones will adopt metal can batteries despite their added expense. The extra energy storage will be worth it.<\/p>\n

It will also be \u201cvery key\u201d for smaller devices like AR and VR glasses, he said, adding that he saw a few prototypes while he was in China. \u201cIt\u2019s even more of an energy density improvement because it lets you fit into weird shapes,\u201d Berdichevsky said.<\/p>\n

The switch to such a complex battery is likely why Apple hasn\u2019t swapped carbon anodes in its lithium ion batteries for silicon-heavy versions, also known as silicon-carbon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re bringing [a new battery design] online, you kind of go, \u2018You know what? Let\u2019s use yesterday\u2019s chemistry,\u2019\u201d Berdichevsky said.<\/p>\n

But the transition to metal can construction could facilitate the move to silicon anodes in the near future. Pure silicon anodes can store around 50% more energy than traditional graphite anodes, but the material is prone to swelling. Companies like Sila have developed proprietary ways to manage that swelling within the material, but it still needs to be accounted for at the cell level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely will help introduce silicon in these kind of devices,\u201d Berdichevsky said. \u201cIt lets us push the performance limits more. We\u2019ve always had these trade offs, and we have to manage the swell. You still have to do that, but you can push it a little bit more. It\u2019s pretty revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image Credits:Apple The iPhone Air\u2019s thin design might be eye catching, and the amount of engineering that went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[20794,20795,20793,85,6762,46,321,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-22565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-battery-materials","9":"tag-berdichevsky","10":"tag-gene-berdichevsky","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-iphone-air","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-mobile","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}