Including the recently released Galaxy Watch 4/4 Classic, one of the common shortcomings of Samsung smartwatches is battery life. Due to the small size of smartwatches, the battery capacity is also limited. And with the increase in functions, the battery life of the watch has declined. A new patent shows that Samsung is developing a solar watch band to continuously charge the watch through solar energy.
In mid-2019, Samsung Electronics filed a patent for electronic equipment composed of multiple types of solar cells to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). At the beginning of this year, on January 12, 2021, Samsung provided additional documents, after which the 22-page patent was published on September 16, 2021.
This is a technical description patent describing a Samsung Galaxy Watch with a solar strap. Two solar cells are placed in the strap, on both sides of the watch case. In the product image produced by LetsGoDigital, the position of the solar cell is represented by a honeycomb structure – however, in reality, you won’t see it.
By placing solar cells on both sides of the case, no matter how you wear the watch, you can collect enough sunlight. Samsung uses a polymer with quantum dots to change the light path and uses several solar cells that can perform the photoelectric conversion. The solar cell captures the light passing through the polymer and then converts the light into electricity.
Due to the application of different types of solar cells with different wavebands, relatively high efficiency can be achieved. As a result, the watch needs to capture relatively little sunlight/fluorescent light time in order to be able to operate continuously. Of course, Samsung already has sufficient experience in the application of quantum dots. Think about the Samsung QLED TV lineup-these are LED TVs with quantum dots, or a layer of nanocrystals, that produce colors under the influence of light, resulting in a high color range.
Due to the use of quantum dots, the picture quality of QLED TVs is significantly better than that of ordinary LED TVs. This technology is not only applicable to TVs; the Korean manufacturer also produces QLED gaming monitors.
