High School Student Creates 20-Second Cell Phone Charger

A high school student from California has created a way to charge cell phones completely in just 20-30 seconds.

Eesha Khare, 18, of Saratoga, California, recently won the $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award for her fast-charging device.

The device uses a supercapacitor that can store a lot of energy into a small space. It is capable of 10,000 charge-recharge cycles and can fully charge a cell phone in 20-30 seconds.

Traditional chargers typically take hours to achieve a full charge, and are capable of only 1,000 cycles for rechargeable batteries.

Khare said her supercapacitor has been used to power an LED, and sees her invention being placed in cell phones in the future.

"It is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric," Khare said. "It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense."