Arguments For The iPhone 6 Being Solar Powered
There has been a lot of speculation regarding Apple going solar powered in the near future. The rumors are even more numerous now and they suggest that the upcoming iPhone 6 will include solar panels; this would allow users to charge the iPhone 6 when outside. Such a feature will not just be environmental friendly, it will also be very convenient for users that could charge their smartphones while outside, in the sun. As we said, there has been a lot of speculation about solar powered iDevices, from rumors, to patents and even job listings on Apple’s website. Do you remember about the sapphire coated glass display rumors about the iPhone 6? Well, new rumors suggests that it may integrate solar cells that will charge the iPhone 6.
Matt Margolis speculates on this subject on Seeking Alpha, gathering all the evidence that points Apple is going to release solar powered iDevices in the not so distant future. Before telling you more, let’s talk a little about solar cells. Right now, the biggest problem that solar cells have is efficiency and it is “the ratio of the electrical output of a solar cell to the incident energy in the form of sunlight“. In other words, how efficient is the solar cell in transforming light into electricity. In 2014, the highest efficiencies have been achieved by The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin and they were 44.7 percents. Unfortunately, that’s only possible in a lab and the actual efficiency of solar panels is at about 22 percents, with the rest of the light that hits the solar cell being wasted as heat. So why is this important? It is important because it means that if you cover the surface of the iPhone with solar cells, it won’t be enough to charge it, due to the low efficiency of solar cell technology.
Matt Margolis speculates that, as we mentioned above, Apple is going to integrate solar cells in the sapphire glass display of the iPhone, thus helping the next generation smartphone charge in the sun. He mentioned that sapphire glass will be a better fit for solar cells than the current Gorilla Glass, though he does not explain why. Instead he mentions an Apple patent that the Cupertino based giant filed in February last year. The patent is about integrated touch sensor and solar assembly. This is the patent’s description: ” Integrated touch sensor and solar panel configurations that may be used on portable devices, particularly handheld portable devices such as a media player or phone are disclosed. The integrated touch sensor array and solar cell stack-ups may include electrodes that are used both for collecting solar energy and for sensing on a touch sensor array. By integrating both the touch sensors and the solar cell layers into the same stack-up, surface area on the portable device may be conserved. In addition to being used for capacitive sensing, the integrated touch sensor and solar panel configurations may also be used for optical sensing“.
As Matt Margolis mentions, Apple patents a lot of stuff and most of them aren’t worth mentioning. However, this particular patent is very interesting and it may hint at things to come. “We don?t often cover Apple patent filings, as the company patents all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons (many of them defensive), while only a handful of the ideas make it to market. This one may stand a greater chance of making it into production than most, however, as Apple is known to be a huge fan of renewable energy” said Matt Margolis in regards to last year’s patent from Apple. He also mentions that the patent implies the use of a boost converter which would directly charge the battery by converting the light captured by the solar cells into energy. Unfortunately, this boost converter won’t be able to be integrated inside the smartphone.
Yet another patent was granted to Apple last year, in October. The new patent for ‘POWER MANAGEMENT FOR A SYSTEM HAVING NON-VOLATILE MEMORY‘. The patent is for a system that manages power either with an adapter or directly from a solar panel. This patent does not require a boost converter and Apple says that “the electronic devices that will be able to take advantage of Apple’s new solar panel include a MacBook, iPad, iPod touch and iPhone“. This is the patent description: “Systems and methods are disclosed for power management of a system having non-volatile memory (“NVM”). One or more controllers of the system can optimally turn modules on or off and/or intelligently adjust the operating speeds of modules and interfaces of the system based on the type of incoming commands and the current conditions of the system. This can result in optimal system performance and reduced system power consumption“.
However, as we said above, Apple files a lot of patents in a year and there is no way to tell which of them will be actually used in an Apple product. For this reason it is almost impossible to properly filter the interesting ones from the filler ones. But patent filings aren’t the only clues we have. As we mentioend above, there have been a few interesting job listings on Apple’s website. One of these intriguing job descriptions was “Thin Films Engineer“, listed in the Fall, last year. The description mentioned that Apple is looking for an engineer with a background in semiconductor processing and / or solar industries. Keep in mind that job listings aren’t really evidence of anything. Apple hires a lot of people covering a very wide range of fields, so the “Thin Films Engineer” may or may not be related to a solar powered iPhone 6. It could very well be related to anything else.
In November last year, Apple signed a deal with GT Advanced Technologies (“a diversified technology company with innovative crystal growth equipment and solutions for the global solar, LED and electronics industries“) in order to build a new sapphire glass manufacturing plant in Mesa, Arizona. The upcoming plant will make sapphire glass materials that will be integrated in Apple?s upcoming iDevices. After buying manufacturing facility from First Solar, a company based in Tempe, Arizona, Apple signed the deal with GT Advanced Technologies to manufacture sapphire glass materials on the site. Last month, in January 2014, Apple started posting job listings for the facility and a few very interesting job listings were for Physical Vapor Deposition and glass scribing. You may be wondering what these terms mean. Glass scribing means to place a very thin film solar cell onto glass while Physical Vapor Deposition is the process of depositing thin films by the condensation of a vaporized form of material onto surfaces.
Besides all the above mentioned job listings, there is also the large order of solar cell coating equipment. Matt Margolis mentions the large order that was announced by German Manz AG: it seems that ?a leading smartphone company? placed an order of $68 million (or 50 million euros) for solar cell coating equipment. The tech that was bought includes “laser process technology” and “innovative vacuum coating systems” and it will be delivered by the end of this year’s second quarter. The German company Manz AG says the equipment “offers excellent prospects for follow-up orders and corresponding high future revenue potential“.
The amount of money involved in this purchase suggests that whichever company bought the equipment will use it for large scale manufacturing. You noticed we said, whoever bought the equipment. That is because we are not entirely certain that Apple is the company that placed the order. Manz AG calimed the order was placed by ?a leading smartphone company?, but Apple is not the only leading smartphone company. Samsung is another leading smartphone company and there have recently been rumors that the South Korean company is also trying to release solar powered devices. Not to mention that even if it is Apple, the Cupertino based giant could be using the equipment for something else; they are known for building lots of solar farms. Yet, we still belive that Apple is the company that palced the order and it is for the upcoming iPhone 6 and maybe even for the upcoming iWatch.
