Paper thin Printable batteries with no outer metal casing

Paper thin Printable batteries with no outer metal casing

Power Paper printable batteries will work exactly like a traditional battery, but it will be nearly as thin as a piece of paper. A Power Paper cell can generate 1.5 volts of electricity, which is about the same output as a watch or calculator battery.

It's amazing to watch as computers and other everyday electronic devices become thinner and thinner.
Yet, as new technologies are slimming down the size of electronic devices, power supplies have not slimmed down at the same pace. For a long time, batteries were bulky and heavy. Now, a new cutting-edge battery is revolutionizing the field. It is thinner than a millimeter, lighter than a gram, and can be produced cost-effectively through a printing process.

Power Paper, an Israel-based company, has recognized the need for a thinner power source that will not only power electronic devices, but also fit into disposable devices like games, greeting cards, smart cards, luggage tags and some medical devices. The near future promises to bring us books that will be filled with digital paper, which will display the text of any book we wish to read. Embedded in this ink will be the components of tiny, paper-thin batteries.

A Power Paper cell will be 0.5 millimeters thick, and several cells can be used in combination to provide more power. Here's how it will work:
• A zinc and manganese dioxide (MnO2) -based cathode and anode are fabricated from proprietary inks. In a battery, the cathode refers to the positive terminal and the anode refers to the negative terminal.
• Standard silkscreen printing presses are used to print the batteries onto paper and other substrates.
• Power Paper batteries are integrated into production and assembly processes of thin electronic devices.

It was developed by a research team led by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Baumann of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS in Chemnitz together with colleagues from TU Chemnitz and Menippos GmbH. “Our goal is to be able to mass produce the batteries at a price of single digit cent range each,” states Dr. Andreas Willert, group manager at ENAS.

Because ink is used to produce Power Paper, the batteries are considered dry, and don't need the metal casing that conventional batteries do to contain harmful, toxic chemicals. This lack of casing allows electronics manufacturers to utilize the power source in many shapes and sizes.

Read more at: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/power-paper2.htm
Or at: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12932-nanotube-tangles-power-printable-batteries.html