Wearable Health Tech devices need power. Great progress is being made in energy harvesting technology, but until these solutions become widely available at a low cost — and perhaps afterwards as well — we will continue to depend on batteries to store electricity to power our devices. And if these batteries are rechargeable, so much the better.
STMicroelectronics has developed a paper-thin lithium ion battery called EnFilm. These batteries are just 0.25 mm thick: about the thickness of a typical business card. They are only about an inch square, but pack 0.7 mAh capacity which is sufficient to power wireless sensors and other devices. The company recently announced that they have started commercial production of these batteries, and are shipping them in limited quantities.
Miniaturization of the digital components must be matched by shrinking the size of batteries and other supporting features in order to make wearable Health Tech affordable and more appealing to users. Advances such as the EnFilm battery are an important step in this direction.
