The Graphene Flagship returns to the GSMA Mobile World Congress, bringing with it the next generation of mobile technologies. At the Graphene Knowledge Centre, there will be cutting-edge new technologies, with interactive demonstrations in Sensors and IoT, Wearables and Health, Datacom and Energy. Organized by the Graphene Flagship, curated by ICFO and supported by the European Commission and the GSMA, the Graphene Pavilion is a glimpse into the future of mobile technologies.
 
People can experience cameras that can see the invisible, filters that create safe drinking water, novel batteries, a wide range of flexible electronics, ultrafast data transmission systems, pressure tracking shoes and solar cells with world-class efficiency, all enabled by graphene.
 
“The Graphene Pavilion at Mobile World Congress is the centrepiece of the Graphene Flagship technology and innovation development,” said Professor Andrea Ferrari, Graphene Flagship science and technology officer and chair of its Management Panel.
 
With 25 different demonstrators, prototypes and products on display there is something for everyone at the Graphene Pavilion.
 
“As the mobile industry strives to maintain its pace of innovation, graphene has much to offer: supporting high-speed 5G services, smart batteries, flexible sensors, integrated photonics and IoT solutions. The interplay between research and industry is instrumental in order to find the right hot spots for innovation,” said Dr. Kari Hjelt, head of Innovation for the Graphene Flagship.
 
Within the four areas of Data Communications, Sensors and IoT, Wearables and Health, and Energy the Graphene Pavilion offers a truly immersive experience into the world of Graphene Innovation. These areas include:
 
• Data Communications: Experience how graphene-based photodetectors and modulators receive and transmit optical data faster than ever before, leading to ultrafast data streams with extreme bandwidth which are essential for a data-driven future in 5G. Developed within the Graphene Flagship by a collaboration between CNIT (Italy), AMO GmbH (Germany), Ericsson (Sweden) and Nokia (Italy), Nokia Bell Labs (Germany) and Imec (Belgium). The optical 25Gb/s data link can be found at the Graphene Pavilion. At the Ericsson stand in Hall 2 (open to Ericsson customers and by invite only), Ericsson and CNIT will present switching of a 100Gb/s channel in an Ericsson testbed.
 
• Sensors and IoT: A wide-spectrum graphene light camera, developed by ICFO (Spain) which can see details invisible to the human eye. Using sensitive graphene photodetectors, the camera can detect ultraviolet, visible and infrared light enabling this wide-spectrum imaging. This has implications in quality screening for food safety and imaging systems for autonomous cars. Also on display is a newly launched product from Emberion (Finland). Emberion’s single pixel sensing solution with graphene-based photodetectors for visible to short-wave infrared light is ideal for sensitive spectrometry, gas detection and portable material analysis solutions.
 
• Wearables and Health: A flexible graphene-based neural interface that records signals from the speech centres on the surface of the brain is being developed by ICN2 (Spain) in collaboration with the BrainCom project. These implants exhibit low invasiveness and are more suitable for integration than the current state of the art because of graphene’s flexibility and intrinsic electronic properties. Graphene smart shoes which show multifunctional benefits including sensing, cooling and enhanced strength will also be on display. A prototype from the Cambridge Graphene Centre (UK) provides pressure tracking in athletic shoes to boost performance and a commercially available shoe developed by IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, the IIT start-up BeDimensional s.r.l. and Fadel s.r.l. (Italy) is more comfortable due to enhanced heat transfer properties.
 
• Energy: Graphene supercapacitors and batteries, developed by Thales Research and Technology (France), IIT - Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italy) and the Cambridge Graphene Centre (UK) which can be printed, have high energy density and rapidly charge and discharge will be used in mobile devices and make high power more portable.
 
The 2018 Graphene Pavilion also sees the introduction of the Graphene Knowledge Centre. Staffed by experts in the graphene field, it is the place to go and learn more about graphene, its structure, properties, production methods as well as its roadmap for future success.