n Microsoft’s idea of the future we will be spreading our tablet out on a table or clipping it around our wrist, and while the new generation of flexible screens is making much of that technology possible, one rather unbending component has held us back for some time now.
That component is of course batteries, which are both large and difficult to bend, and has the nasty tendency to explode when you do.
A new Microsoft patent published by USTPO talks about a flexible battery which might be the final piece that Microsoft needed to bring their vision to life. The patent was granted to Microsoft on 24th January.
An electrochemical energy storage cell includes a flexible positive electrode and a flexible negative electrode including a gallium-based liquid metal dispersed on a flexible wire mesh. The electrochemical energy storage cell also includes a membrane having a surface in contact with the flexible positive electrode and an opposing surface in contact with the flexible negative electrode.
To get an idea of what a truly flexible tablet would look like, see the gif below:
Of course, we don’t when such a device will arrive, but given that Microsoft’s Productivity Vision of the Future was talking about a future 5-10 years from now in 2015, it would seem that we would not have too long to wait.
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