Apple Wants Solar Tech Engineers
A new job listing on Apple’s website suggest that the Cupertino based giant is interested in using thin film solar tech for its upcoming devices. The job listing is for an engineer with previous experience in the solar industry. The solar tech engineer will join Apple’s Mobile Devices team he will “assist in the development and refinement of thin films technologies applicable to electronic systems”. This job listing is consistent with previous rumors and speculation about Apple intending to use solar panels for its upcoming devices.
The solar tech engineer needs not only “extensive experience with thin-film technologies in either semiconductor processing or solar industries […]” but also he also needs “knowledge of thin-films in the context of RF shielding is highly desirable”.
Apple has some experience with solar panels; the company used solar tech for its data centers and for the new Apple 2 “Spaceship” campus. There have been various past hints that the company intends to use solar tech in its products: two years ago a few Apple patents regarding solar applications for consumer devices appeared online; this year another patent appeared, describing how to integrate both a touch sensor and a solar assembly into a mobile device’s display.
Solar tech has potential applications in Apple’s rumored smart watch. The smart watch is said to be in development (many fitness and sensor experts contributing to the project) and it is rumored to be unveiled sometime int he near future. A recent patent applications describes a wristwatch that uses a built in solar array as an extra power source for its battery. Battery life is one of the biggest problems of today’s smart watches as they often require daily charging. If the smart watch has a longer battery life, that’s because it has a bigger battery so it is also thicker than a normal wristwatch. A solution such as an extra power source (solar energy) would do wonders for the smart watch industry.
Apple is not the only company testing solar technology. There are other companies that intend to use solar tech in mobile devices with the purpose of extending battery life, however so far no big company has integrated a solar panel into one of its mobile devices (smartphone or tablet). It was recently reported that TCL Communications (a Chinese electronics company) is testing a tech called Wysipsfrom SUnPartner; this tech integrates a thin (0.5 mm) photo voltaic surface under a smartphone’s (or smart watch) display.
Just like all other major mobile devices manufacturers, Apple is continuously researching ways to improve battery life but at the same time keeping devices as small as possible. There is already a market for solar charging devices for Apple products, but that’s not what Apple is intending. A solar panel integrated into a future iPad, or iPhone or iWatch would be a very big feature as it will improve the device’s battery life without compromising its size. We are pretty excited at the prospect of an iPhone (or an iWatch) with a solar panel.
