News

KDDI Develops Prototype Phones with Toshiba and Hitachi

September 25, 2005 by Jeff Shepard

KDDI Corp. (Tokyo, Japan), with partners Toshiba Corp. (Japan) and Hitachi Ltd. (Japan), announced the development of new prototype mobile phones powered with fuel cells, which will be exhibited at CEATEC JAPAN on October 4, 2005. KDDI had been in co-development with Toshiba and Hitachi since July 2004 on next-generation fuel cells for use in mobile devices such as cell phones.

The fuel cell mobile phone co-developed by Toshiba and KDDI is based on the A5509T handset. The system used is a hybrid type, with power supplied by a compact fuel cell and a fuel tank at the back of the handset, plus an internal lithium-ion battery. It uses high-concentration methanol to achieve a battery capacity 2.5 times the conventional value with a single refill.

The fuel cell co-developed by Hitachi and KDDI is based on the W32H handset. The system used is a hybrid type, with power supplied by a compact fuel cell on the side with the LCD sub-display, plus an internal lithium-ion battery. The prototype is compact, about the same size as the original W32H, and when the fuel cell's capacity becomes low, it can be easily refilled from a compact cartridge.