Solar-powered Apples may on the horizon. According to news reports, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has filed a patent for utilizing solar cells in portable devices.

The patent specifies putting the solar panels under the display, since much of the remaining surface area of a handheld device is occupied by buttons and similar components. Devices described in the application include both handheld and portable computers.

Sun Would Shine Through

Even though such Apple products as the iPhone have a screen that is exceptionally large for a portable device, the more surface area, the better for catching solar rays. According to the patent, the solar panel would be stacked behind the LCD display, absorbing light rays that pass through the display. Both the iPod and the iPhone could be candidates.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst for JupiterResearch, noted that some small devices, such as wristwatches or calculators, are solar-powered, but otherwise the potential has only recently emerged for larger portable devices

to be energized by the sun. One possibility, he suggested, is that solar capability, at least in the short term, may be employed for short-term recharging or in other supplementary ways, rather than as the exclusive capability source.

Vodafone, Motorola

Other portable-device makers are plus beginning to think of the sun as more than just a free source of device illumination. Last month, for instance, Vodafone said its plans to dramatically cut its greenhouse-gas emissions included solar-powered phone chargers.

Motorola has received a patent, originally filed in 2001, for a screen that lets more light through than other designs. Previous approaches, said the Motorola patent, have resulted in small amounts of potential being generated that only added an incremental boost to a power-hungry cell phone or personal digital assistant.

In many devices, the LCD is a fairly reflective screen, and Motorola said only six percent of light rays pass through….

Original post by Top Tech News