Flexible batteries -- ones that can be repeatedly flexed without losing integrity -- are nothing new in the lab. But Panasonic now says it will start shipping sample units of a flexible LiIon battery at the end of this month. The batteries, about 0.5mm thick, retains more than 99 percent of its capacity when flexed more than 1000 times, even around a 25 mm radius or twisting … [Read more...]
Has Applied Materials Made a Battery Storage Breakthrough?
It's not exactly news that batteries are a limiting factor for wearables: size, density, and flexibility are all problematic. But there's news that Applied Materials -- one of those technology infrastructure companies that are critical to the tech business but that no one outside it has ever heard of -- has made a breakthrough in the way batteries are made. Technology … [Read more...]
Researchers Explore Capacitors Instead of Batteries to Power Wearables
Batteries are a well-known problem for wearable tech. Researchers at Rice University have developed a flexible and rechargeable power resource that bypass batteries entirely in favor of supercapacitors. James Tour, a chemist at Rice, suggests using an electrochemical capacitor a hundredth-of-an-inch thick to store power. The capacitor is easier to build than a battery, Tour … [Read more...]
Curved Li-Ion Batteries from Samsung
It's not always the way electronic companies work, but it makes sense that Samsung, which makes and sells the curved Gear Fit fitness tracker, would also make and sell a curved Li-Ion battery. The Samsung SDI carries 230 mAh of power, which is not a lot compared to a smartphone (2,000 mAh and up is pretty typical) but is rather a lot for wristwear. Now the question is, what … [Read more...]
Fraunhofer Explores Self-Powering Flexible Wearables
Batteries are turning out to be one of the less-tractable problems for wearable tech, but the research company that invented the MP3 format is working on technology might help gear power itself. Germany's Fraunhofer Institute is heading a consortium that's building a flexible wearable energy harvester called MATFLEXEND. The idea is that as the harvester flexes, its … [Read more...]
Wearables Growth to Drive Lithium Battery Market
There's an interesting new study from the research firm IHS that finds that the wearables industry will quadruple its demand for lithium batteries in the next few years, while price pressures and shipment declines in other portable sectors will slow the industry down. In other words, if it weren't for wearables, the lithium battery industry would be in trouble after … [Read more...]
NYTimes: Batteries are Key to Mobile Tech
It's not news to anyone with an iPhone and a 3pm date with an outlet that batteries are going to have to get a whole lot better before wearable tech has a hope of widespread adoption. The NYTimes digs into the subject today and namechecks a few of the ongoing power experiments: solar power, induction charging, and even harvesting radio signals. Most of the good stuff -- the … [Read more...]