Researcher at the London Centre for Nanotechnology Arman Ahnood thinks today’s OLED screens waste energy and there’s room for improvements. The extra light phone displays emit could be reused by putting a thin-film PV cells around the display’s edges.
Here’s the idea:
The photovoltaic (PV) cell takes advantage of the smartphone display’s large footprint. In a typical organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, only about 36 percent of the light generated is projected out of the front of the screen, says Ahnood. Much of it escapes at the edges of the OLED, where it is useless.
The system efficiency averages at about 11%, with a peak efficiency of 18%. This in turn can generate as much as 165 microwatts per square centimeter under the right lighting conditions, equating to a maximum power output of 5 milliwatts for a typical 3.7-inch smartphone screen. According to Ahnood, this is “quite useful power,” though we guess it will give you just enough juice to send a couple of dozen texts more.
In any case, we like the idea of making our phones more power efficient and are looking forward to a day when our smartphones won’t have to be charged every day even with strong Wi-Fi usage…
[Via: Engadget]