Paper-Thin Batteries To Juice Self-Powered OLEDs
General Electric has teamed with an Israeli battery developer to make thin organic LED panels that require no external power source
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›
OLED-Lit Tent
Organig LEDs hold large promise for efficient, thin and flexible lighting elements (as well as razor-thin TVs), but low-tech power sources continue to constrain more creative uses of the lights. After all, what good is a shirt of woven LEDs if you need to lug around 10 C batteries to power it? Thankfully, GE is teaming up with the makers of printable, paper-thin battery to create self-powered OLEDs with the battery integrated into the thin light element itself.
The partnership binds GE with Power Paper, an Israeli company who’s ink-based batteries could light OLEDs in nearly any setting. This collaboration will run for a year, and aims to both create the first generation of this technology, and get started on second generation applications.
As you know, the quest for ever-thinner batteries is being pursued by a number of research groups, including the Stanford researchers we covered last week who have devised a way to make batteries out of actual sheets of paper by coating it in nanotube ink.
GE already imagines lighting a tent without the use of a generator, but I’m thinking bigger. Anyone in the mood for a portable, self-powered flat-screen TV you can roll up like a poster?