Battery innovation has been stuck in the lithium ion age over the past few decades, and progress towards a better battery has hardly moved at all when compared to exponential jumps in storage space, memory capacity and processor computing speeds. However, in the recent past, graphene (similar to a pencil’s graphite) has enjoyed success in solving some of the roadblocks of lithium ion technology. In fact, the potential output of the material far outlasts and exceeds the capacity of traditional lithium ion in terms of volume and weight. On top of that, the material is flexible and can be adapted in new flexible displays. However, the reason we haven’t seen devices using graphene yet is due to difficulties in the implementation of the delicate processes involved in building graphene layers on a large manufacturing scale.

According to the post on Samsung’s blog, it seems Samsung has finally grasped the manufacturing process, and stated that in partnership with Sungkyunkwan University, SAIT (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology) has become the first group of researchers to harness the benefits of graphene on a large scale manufacturing platform. The process is designed to overcome previous problems which included deteriorating electric properties. The breakthrough was accomplished by synthesizing “large area graphene onto a single crystal on a semiconductor, maintaining its electrical and mechanical properties.”

Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University have been working on graphene and other nano research since 2006, and the partnership has yielded the most awaited leap in efficient energy management. We will see the technology decrease the size of our phones and tablets further, as well as power smart watches and even allow tiny devices to achieve incredible battery life. As processors make the switch to 14 nanometer processes, and flexible devices are becoming popular, the world is finally ready for a revolutionary change in how often we charge our devices, and what types of efficiency we will expect from them in the future.

Source: Samsung | Image via UC Berkley