SARATOGA, CA (TIP): An 18-year-old Indian-American girl has invented a super-capacitor device that could potentially charge a cell phone in less than 20 seconds. Eesha Khare from Saratoga in California was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the Intel Foundation after developing the tiny device that fits inside mobile phone batteries that could allow them to charge within 20-30 seconds.

The so-called super-capacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time, NBC News reported. Ms Khare has been awarded $50,000 for developing the tiny device. She has also attracted the attention of tech giant Google for her potentially revolutionary invention. According to the teenager, her device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared to 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries.

“My cell phone battery always dies,” she said, when asked about what inspired her to work on the energystorage technology. Super-capacitors allowed her to focus on her interest in nanochemistry – “really working at the nanoscale to make significant advances in many different fields.” The gadget has, so far, only been tested on an LED light, but the good news is that it has a good chance of working successfully in other devices, like mobile phones, the report said.

Ms Khare sees it fitting inside cell phones and the other portable electronic devices proliferating in today’s world. “It is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric. It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense,” she added.