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Thin, Flexible Printable Battery For Smartcards
cornflux writes "This would be a nice way to power a really smart smartcard: Power Paper, Ltd. has created an alkaline-like energy cell that is (among other things) thin, flexible, and "green." Furthermore, it is printable via a silk-screening process onto paper, plastic, and other flexible materials.
ABCNEWS.com has the story."
At roughly $22 for the equivalent power of a AA, I doubt that they will add these to anything that doesn't absolutely require them.
That's not my hand.
It's pretty obvious that the power/weight ratio of this type of battery is significantly smaller than the one of a standard AA batery. More than that, the article fails to mention the exact capacity or stand-by leaking current. Which pretty much means that the average lifetime of such a battery is inferior to the one of a regular battery (if it were superior, I'm sure they would have mentioned it).
The Raven
The Raven
* Not much power. 1/22 of an AA batt. wont power much for very long. even LCD screens are rather power intensive. and since it has a rather high cost, wouldnt we have to pay for replacement creditcards quite often?
* Not rechargeable (is it?) You'd either have to replace the entire device or recharge the paper, when the batt. dies. These dont seem too replaceable, they're far too propritary/embedded
Aside from that...I could see all kinds of fun uses for this..especialy when combined with e-ink...You could have, for example..a reuseable newspaper. Hell, make it glow while we're at it. The use this will probly be put to is however some sort of tracking system. Build a little antena into my new smartcard, and Amex can tell exactly where I am at all times. If you put it into my drivers licence, so could the goverment. Fun, aint it?
The opinions in this post are ficticious. Any similarity to actual opinions, real or imagined, is purely coincidental.
Then, I read the article and info on their site and had to do some thinking.
Basically, I still think it would be good for wearables.
Some quotes from the supplied links -
The resulting battery is about half a millimeter thick -- the same thickness as the paper used to make milk cartons.
...has developed a battery that can be printed directly onto paper, plastic or other flexible material.
Can be manufactured in any custom size or shape
Two to three layers of this could be made into the inside lining of a bulky jacket/overcoat.
To produce as much power as a standard AA-sized battery, for instance, would require a Power Paper battery of about a square foot in size.
Given 2 or 3 layers in a jacket AND most of the jacket real estate being the power supply, this would be enough for a low-power computing device.
Obviously, higher power cells or thinner cells would be neccesary to power current wearables as while they're relatively low-power devices, the display is always a major source of power drain. So, while I'm not saying anyone should go out there and do it immediately, I definitely see potential for it in the future...
Recharging of the batteries could be accomplished using a combination of solar (thereby making the jacket look cool) and energy gained from movement (as with a few rather nifty watches out there).
Ben de Waal. yttriumox@softhome.net
-- Not an anonymous coward, just too lazy to create a slashdot account, I post about once a year on average, I read daily.
If my maths is right - 25 hours at standard drain
http://www.powerpaper.com/tech/technology.html
Nominal current 0.1 mA/cm2
Capacity 2.5 mAh/cm2
Shelf life is 2.5 years.
So between 1 day and 2.5 years depending on usage.
http://www.thehungersite.com
burris
They have a patent. 5,897,522.
The patent seems to be for a mechanism for allowing the escape of gases produced by the generation.
They give some examples of chemicals in the patent application and the chemistry of batteries of old technology, there are probably a number of different solutions that could be used.
They could be protecting the exact chemicals used just because they're an efficient set to use, not because they're the only ones which work; and the real invention is making the whole thing practical and long-lasting.
http://www.thehungersite.com
One reason that ebooks haven't taken off yet is that it's rather cumbersome, carrying your laptop all over creation just to read a book. Using this as a power source, and a single-page lcd screen, you might just have an ebook that was portable enough to carry around like a regular paperback.
The battery is replaceable, and it shouldn't be hard to download different texts into it... or, maybe, store the texts on a novram card. Sell whole textbooks like this, and make it easier for students to carry the whole load.
These paper batteries could easily be used, whereas conventional batteries are rather heavy and bulky, still.
Lemon curry?