Wireless Charging Startups Look to Power a Device-Filled World, Eye Regulatory OKs
LAS VEGAS -- Though many industry watchers considered the wireless charging market to be Qi's when Apple chose that standard for the iPhone 8 and X (see 1709130040), startups told us at CES this month they have other ideas for the smart home and other consumer spaces. The technologies are low-power solutions lacking transmitter-receiver coil-to-coil contact requirements of the Qi specification.
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Wi-Charge partnered with Allegion’s Schlage and Alarm.com brands, showing a “proof of concept” Schlage deadbolt lock controlled via Alexa. The lock and an Echo Dot were charged by a prototype Wi-Charge infrared power transmitter. The first Wi-Charge chipset modules designed for mass production are due in Q1 and products could reach market by year-end, said Ori Mor, vice president-device R&D.
Humavox launched its ON Around the Clock ecosystem here, positioning its Eterna platform for ultra-low-power devices up to high-powered smartphones and power tools. The company’s RF-based approach turns “everyday storage items you already own and use into smart wireless chargers,” said CEO Omri Lachman. Its booth displayed an Energizer logo. Lachman said that represented the company’s partnership with original design manufacturer and OEM TennRich International, a licensee and partner of Energizer, Mophie, Philips and others. It wasn't showing Energizer-branded products. Friday, Energizer didn’t comment.
Menno Treffers, chairman of the Wireless Power Consortium, whose Qi standard is the widely deployed technology nascent wireless power companies want to replace, said WPC is deliberately avoiding through-the-air charging. “We believe the technologies we have seen are too inefficient.” He noted Nikola Tesla envisioned wireless power in the late 1800s and it’s possible to power a phone at 15 feet today using wireless charging, but to make it commercially viable, “you need to meet the nonfunctional requirement.” It’s easy to do distance and power charging over the air but by compromising efficiency, cost and safety, Treffers said: “Can you get it approved by the FCC and other regulators?”
Responding to arguments of efficiency in distance charging, Gordon Bell, marketing vice president at Energous, which received FCC approval for its near-field and mid-field WattUp wireless charging (see 1804110034), said most of the company's customers are looking to move away from their current contact-based technologies. “Or they’ve not been able to even adopt coil-based charging.” Qi-type charging requires a flat surface for the receiver and transmitter, which can work in a smartphone but is harder to accommodate in other forms, like an in-ear personal sound amplification product (PSAP).
On what’s holding up Energous products from reaching the market -- a Delight-branded PSAP from SK Telesys is due in “the next few months” -- Bell cited regulatory approvals and new technologies “always taking longer than originally expected.” Energous has OKs in 111 countries but not in China, Japan or Korea; he said the company is “confident” on securing approvals there. The company showed concepts of a router, remote control, smart glasses and watch that could incorporate WattUp technology, which “may or may not come to market.” Companies want to differentiate their products, said Bell: “Being able to do a smart speaker or something that has an AP [access point] function plus wireless charging is interesting” to many firms.