Researchers at Fraunhofer, the largest organization for applied research in Europe, are working on micro power engineering solutions to provide the mobile power needed by modern communications devices (i.e., prevent the laptop screen from suddenly going black, or running out of cell phone battery power). The latest examples of their work can be seen at the Hanover Trade Fair in Hall 2/Stand D22, "Signposts to tomorrow's markets." Mobile devices are becoming more and more intelligent – allowing users to watch movies on a mobile phone or laptop, or navigate with a PDA – but at the same time they require increasing amounts of power.
Future efforts to optimize power supply systems for mobile devices will increasingly involve the use of multiple power generation technologies with an electric buffer store
In order to achieve maximum power utilization with the highest degree of efficiency, a system of intelligent power management is needed. The goal is to link the energy delivered by batteries, solar cells, thermoelectrics or fuel cells in a device. With this kind of system, a laptop could switch to fuel cells when the battery is depleted, and this in turn would be continuously recharged by the solar cells whenever light conditions were favorable. Power management ensures that MP3 players, mobile phones and notebooks always have an optimal power supply. "Please save your data, the computer is shutting down" – for anyone who works while traveling on business, laboring over a new spreadsheet or writing an important document while sitting on the train, the threat of data loss can be frustrating. Each new generation of portable electronic devices incorporates new data acquisition and processing capabilities, and transfer speeds have meanwhile become fast enough to stream movies or soccer matches. But this comes at a price in terms of operating time – depending on the quality of the battery, a laptop, for example, shuts off after two to three hours if no power outlet is available. If used frequently, UMTS mobile phones must be charged at least once daily, while MP3 players with rechargeable batteries last just a few hours, depending on the quality of the battery.
