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Chances are you don't think a whole lot about the charger you use to power up your phone,

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your laptop, or electric toothbrush. You plug it in, it clobbers your gadget with electronics,

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and a little while later you've got a full charge. Simple, right? Well, it turns out that the

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electronics industry is very interested in making a fundamental change to charging technology. To

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be specific, they're looking at moving away from conventional silicon and switching to a new material

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called gallium nitride. But why are they stopped using something so tried and true? To answer,

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we reached out to our friends at Anker, and we'd like to thank them for their insight.

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So, like other electronics, chargers contain semiconductors, like silicon, that control

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current flow. And a semiconductor is a material that allows some electricity to flow, but not

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tons of it. Hence the name. However, not all semiconductors are the same, and one of the

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main ways that they differ from each other is in something called a band gap. All a band gap is,

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is an energy range where no electrons can exist. Gallium nitride's band gap is nearly triple

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that of silicons, meaning it can conduct electrons at higher voltages. But the band gap isn't so high

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that it turns it into an insulator, which can't conduct electrons very well at all.

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Because gallium nitride chargers can use high voltages, they can conduct electrons

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about a thousand times more efficiently than silicon chargers can. This efficiency gives them a few

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distinct advantages that are relevant to you and me, buddy boy. One, you can make a charger quite a

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bit smaller. So instead of having a phone charger that like blocks the other outlets, or laptop brick

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that weighs down your backpack, you'll have an efficient gallium nitride charger that can push

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a high number of watts. Two, you might see chargers that are a little more versatile, as the more

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efficient nature of gallium nitride means that it'll be easier to make chargers that can

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charge multiple devices at once, or incorporate additional features such as multiple plugs for

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different countries without taking up a ton of space. Three, they should eventually be cheaper.

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Currently, the few gallium nitride chargers that exist on the market are more expensive than their

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silicon counterparts, since silicon is so widely available. Plus, they're subject to the dreaded

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early adopter tax, like most new electronics. However, because gallium nitride is so much

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more efficient, manufacturers won't need as much of it to construct a charger, which will drive costs

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down to the point that they might be less expensive on average than today's silicon chargers. And it's

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not like gallium nitride is a completely unknown material that we can't manufacture in large quantities.

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Indeed, it actually started being used in a large scale in LED lights way back in the 1990s, and I

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was live back then. You also won't need a device that's specifically compatible with a gallium

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nitride charger to take advantage of these benefits. Thank God. And if you're a fan of fast charging,

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gallium nitride will be especially important, as its higher efficiency will allow fast charging to

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be deployed to more devices. Of course, it might be a while before we see gallium nitride chargers

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become just as common as silicon-based ones, but you can grab one today if you're willing to spend

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a little more money. Some current chargers can push as much as 100 watts current chargers,

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so they might be worth it if you often need high capacity charging, but find yourself

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fighting space limits, like if you're that guy hogging every outlet inside the airport terminal.

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Didn't your parents teach you how to share? So thanks for watching guys. If you like this video,

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hit like, get subscribed, and be sure to hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions

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for topics that we should cover in the future.