Dracula Technologies unveils enhanced LAYER® OPV with up to 15% boost

Dracula Technologies, a leader in ambient light energy harvesting, announces a significant advancement in its LAYER® technology that delivers 15% higher power efficiency along with new aesthetic improvements. This breakthrough enables manufacturers to integrate smaller Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) modules with the same electrical performance or achieve greater power output at the same size, meeting the industry's demand for compact, battery-free solutions.

In addition, a new aesthetic coating enhances the module's appearance, allowing for seamless integration into various product designs.

A new aesthetic coating is applied to the top surface of the module to enhance its appearance and hide any potential defects. Customers can choose from a variety of finishes based on their preferences, with a catalog of available options to be released soon. This addition ensures that LAYER® modules not only deliver superior performance, but also blend seamlessly into product designs. In addition, the new silver bus bars enhance the visual appeal of the module while increasing efficiency.

As industries seek to minimize battery dependency, the need for efficient, maintenance-free power solutions is growing, particularly in IoT, smart labels, and industrial automation. Batteries increase device size, require replacement, and contribute to e-waste.

The latest iteration of LAYER® enhances energy harvesting efficiency by generating sufficient power even in very low light conditions (<100 lux). This enables device manufacturers to reduce power constraints, extend product life, and eliminate battery-related maintenance, making self-powered electronics more viable than ever.

With improved efficiency and compact design, LAYER® enables manufacturers to create truly autonomous IoT sensors, smart building automation devices and electronic shelf labels. In retail, this means sustainable, cost-effective solutions for electronic price tags, while logistics and asset tracking benefit from reliable, battery-free power sources. Industrial automation applications such as smart sensors and process monitoring also gain increased energy autonomy, reducing operating costs and supporting energy-efficient operations.

This technological advancement replaces the previous copper bus bars with screen-printed silver, allowing precise control of the line width down to 1 mm, increasing the active area and improving power generation by up to 15%. This improvement offers either a more compact design with the same power or more power with the same surface area, reducing costs by up to 15%.

The use of screen printing ensures durability and stability by better handling the dense silver paste, resulting in robust, long-lasting busbars. In addition to these efficiency improvements, the aesthetic coating further enhances the module's integration into product designs, ensuring both functionality and visual appeal.

Dracula Technologies will be exhibiting at Embedded World on March 11-13 and at WIoT tomorrow, October 22-23, 2025. Attendees will have the opportunity to see live demonstrations at the Dracula Technologies booth and gain insight into the technology that powers indoor devices. For those interested, Dracula Technologies offers demo kits for product designers to order and build prototypes.