FCC Now Approves “WattUp” Long-Range Wireless Charging Technology

Energous just announced that its long-range wireless charging technology called “WattUp,” is now the first long-range wireless charging to be certified by the FCC. Energous said that it will demo its technology at the next Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018), between January 9 and 12, in Las Vegas.

Long Range Wireless Charging Technologies Competition

In the past year some wireless charging technologies have been introduced. One of the more popular ones is “Qi,” an inductive charging technology. It requires you to keep the device that needs to be charged to stay in a fixed location. You wouldn’t need to “plug” but the conditions of using it is not really offering much of change from the regular way of cable charging.  Some more promising technology that is called “Rezence,” does “magnetic resonance” charging and allows a greater degree of freedom to you. You have more freedom on where you can place your devices while being charged. The devices only need to be placed in the near vicinity of the charger. However, the larger the distance the less efficient the charging is. Plus, Rezence came a little later compared to Qi. Qi benefited from some first-mover advantages such as increased adoption of current devices.

The WPC and the AirFuel Alliance have largely the same industry players backing them, with a notable difference being that Apple joined the WPC earlier this year, while Intel joined the AirFuel Alliance. WattUp is a wireless charging technology that can charge devices up to 15 feet. But again, the efficiency drops significantly with longer distances. The WattUp technology converts electricity into radio waves in the 5.8GHz band and then the receiver that comes built into devices will capture waves and charge. Energous was previously rumored to partner with Apple, but it doesn’t look like that deal was made.

Energous said that it will demo its technology at the next Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018), between January 9 and 12, in Las Vegas.

Tags: Technology, battery technology, wireless charging, new wireless charging technology, AirFuel Alliance ,WPC, Energous, WattUp , WattUp wireless charging

Mohsen Daemi
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