Self Powered Cholesteric Reflective Flexible Displays

A reflective display that simultaneously serves to generate power from ambient light is developed to create a flexible body worn and handheld display that does not require battery replacement or user charging. Taking advantage of optical features unique to the bistable cholesteric technology, the dual purpose reflective displays make efficient use of ambient light to convert into electrical power from remaining light not reflected by the image even while the device is being operated as a display. Not possible with other known display technologies, a self powered, high resolution cholesteric display on a flexible substrate is developed for maps, text, photos and graphics at a page turn rate of at least several pages per minute. In many applications, the display/photovoltaic device can generate sufficient electrical energy to power other electronics in addition to the display itself.