TECH

Drum battery for electronic clothing

Flexible batteries
Dress electronics have debuted in the form of portable systems with sensors to collect biometric and health data, but they promise much more, like T-shirts that play music or work as screens to vary their prints.One of the obstacles for this technology to take off is the manufacture of flexible batteries that can adapt to the specific material used in clothing and provide the energy that the system requires.To fill this gap, engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microintegration in Germany have just created the technical basis for fueling this new technological trend.Instead of giving conventional batteries flexibility at the cost of energy density and reliability, Robert Hahn and his colleagues focused on designing very small and powerful batteries and new assembly technology.The resulting batteries are flexible between the segments, such as a metal watch strap, which allowed to maintain a high energy density and high power, while maintaining a level of flexibility suitable for most garments.


Battery Bracelet
With a capacity of 300 milliamperes per hour, the batteries can store 1.1 watt / hour of energy and lose less than 3% of their load capacity per year, surpassing any product available in the market to date, such as smart clocks, for example, in which the battery is usually built in the watch casing, not the bracelet.Hahn claims that the power of the batteries is also enough to power medical devices by recording long-term electrocardiograms, for example. Because the sensors are light, flexible and hidden in clothing, this is a convenient way to monitor a heart patient in their daily routine.


Source:Fraunhofer IZM Institute