CAP-XX Photo Archive

Note: Low Resolution images are displayed. To view and save High Resolution images, click on the "High Res" link where it appears, right click on the image, and select "Save Image As" to save the larger image to your hard disk. Please be patient as some images are quite large. To obtain "High Res" images when you don't see a link, contact:
Michelle Moody
Moody & Associates

+1-214-363-3460

The following photographs were taken at night from 2.5 meters distance using three camera phones to compare standard LED flash (Left), Xenon flash (Middle) and the CAP-XX supercapacitor-powered LED BriteFlash™ (Right).

• Left: Nokia N73 with a standard LED flash unit – 4 LEDs at 70mA each, no supercapacitor power.
• Middle: SonyEricsson K800 with a Xenon flash unit.
• Right: Nokia N73 modified with CAP-XX BriteFlash™ solution – supercapacitor powers 4 LEDs
  at 0.75A each.

Note: For more details on each phone tested, scroll down to “Light Power and Light Energy Measurements” and “Equipment Tested Included”.

• The Xenon flash has excellent light power, but a very short flash exposure time.
• An LED flash, powered by a supercapacitor, delivers lower light power over a longer
  flash exposure time for total Light Energy that exceeds most Xenon flashes.

• 4 high-current LEDs (with a rolling shutter and a CMOS sensor frame rate of 15/sec) deliver 18% more Light Energy than the SonyEricsson K750 with a Xenon attachment that has the highest power in the study.
• 2 high-current LEDs (with a rolling shutter and a CMOS sensor frame rate of 15/sec) deliver 34% more Light Energy than the SonyEricsson K800 with medium power.
• 1 high-current LED (not shown) (with a rolling shutter running at 15 frames/sec) would deliver 75% more Light Energy than the Gigabyte phone with the least power of the Xenon flashes.
• A low-current LED flash, the Nokia N73 as an example, generates much less Light Energy than the other solutions, i.e. 8% of that produced by 2 high-current LEDs and 11% of that generated by the SonyEricsson K800.

CAP-XX's Dr. Trevor Smith Sets Up
Light Measurement Equipment
Measurement included several steps. CAP-XX engineers:

1. Used a photo detector calibrated by the National Measurement Institute in Australia to measure on
   axis illumination of the Xenon and LED flash sources.
2. Captured light power over time at 1 and 2 meters
   from the source using a digital storage oscilloscope.
3. Integrated the area under the power curves to measure Light Energy at the detector as a function
   of time (or of the flash pulsewidth).

1. Xenon camera phones with varying size electrolytic storage capacitors for varying power
   and energy levels. As the electrolytic capacitor's size decreases, so does the Light Energy:
   • SonyEricsson K750 with large external flash accessory with 60µF of capacitance.
   • SonyEricsson K800 with two internal electrolytic capacitors, each 7mm dia. x 18mm long,
     with a total of 28µF capacitance.
   • Gigabyte phone with a small 15µF electrolytic capacitor
2. Standard low-current LED flash, using the Nokia N73 as an example
3. High-current LEDs supported by a supercapacitor, or CAP-XX's BriteFlash™ power solution.
   In this test, two supercapacitors, 17mm wide x 28.5mm long x 1.6mm thick, drive
   multiple high-current Luxeon PWF1 LEDs during each flash.

Comparison of Solution Size and Energy Density
The key advantage of LED Flash over Xenon in camera phones is size. The image on the right compares the electrolytic capacitor used in the SonyEricsson K800 and the supercapacitor used for the LED Flash. The SonyEricsson K800 uses two of these electrolytic capacitors each measuring 7mm dia. x 18mm long. Similarly, the LED Flash solution uses two of these supercapacitors measuring 17mm x 39mm x 1.1mm side by side to keep the solution very thin.

The bulky electrolytic capacitor precludes a thin form factor for a Xenon flash solution with adequate
light energy. Pictured is the SonyEricsson K800. The internal shot shows two electrolytics fitted inside and the other shows the electrolytic and supercapacitor in profile next to the phone.

• Tests show Light Energy from a supercapacitor-powered LED flash exceeds most Xenon flashes.
• Additionally, a thin supercapacitor 1) fits a slim handset more easily than the electrolytic storage capacitor required for Xenon, and 2) can offload demands from the battery and handle all mobile-phone functions that need peak power - wireless voice and data, GPS readings, digital video, music and TV—improving talk time, battery life and audio quality.
• The LED flash solution is capable of high-quality still shots, but not action shots, in low light. A designer can use image-stabilization software to correct for any hand movement that may cause blurry photos. Xenon, with its short exposure time, is superior for capturing fast-moving action shots in low light.

CAP-XX has been recognized for its breakthrough nanotechnology process for producing high capacitance
(1 farad or more), low equivalent series resistance
(< 100 milliohms) supercapacitors that deliver the highest energy and power densities in a thin, flat, prismatic package suitable for portable electronics devices. The company's supercapacitor construction uses carbon electrodes on aluminium foil with a porous separator between the two electrodes arranged in multiple flat layers connected in parallel. The aluminium foil moves the charge current into and out of the carbon where the actual charge is stored in the supercapacitor.

CAP-XX has used nanotechnology:

• To optimize the capacitance per unit volume of carbon by increasing the surface area.
• To lower the resistance of the carbon/aluminium boundary.

These electron microscope photographs of the CAP-XX carbon electrodes show the supercapacitors' nanostructure and construction which optimizes the capacitance and ESR. The result is the industry's highest energy and power densities that can be packed into a thin, flat prismatic package to meet the pulse-power requirements of portable electronic devices. These prismatic supercapacitors allow designers to produce thinner, longer-running products such as cell phones, PDAs, medical devices, AMRs, and notebooks.

Anthony Kongats is CEO of CAP-XX Ltd., designer and manufacturer of supercapacitors, which provide an ideal power solution for increasingly small and functional portable electronics devices like cell phones and PDAs.

Anthony founded the company in 1997 as a vehicle to commercialize the supercapacitor technology and intellectual property spawned by CSIRO Australia. Delivering higher power bursts than batteries and storing more energy than capacitors, supercapacitors provide the high power bursts required, without
draining the battery, when taking a digital photo, sending wireless cell phone transmissions, or taking a GPS reading, for example.

CAP-XX has been recognized for its breakthrough nanotechnology process for producing thin and flat, or prismatic, supercapacitors that will easily fit in portable electronics devices.

Anthony Kongats is CEO of CAP-XX Ltd., whose supercapacitor energy-storage technology enables emerging consumer electronics applications such as advanced
LED flash camera phones to produce high-resolution pictures even in low light. CAP-XX supercapacitors provide enough flash power to an LED in a short pulse to eliminate both dark and blurry photos, while a battery cannot.