Charting the Future of Wireless Power

By Cesar Johnston, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering at Energous Corporation

It was an honor to participate in a virtual panel titled “The Future of Wireless Charging” at the combined CES 2021/IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference earlier this month.

The panel was sponsored by AirFuel Alliance and brought together experts in wireless power from all areas of the tech industry. Participants included leaders like Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion Corporation; Jacob Babcock, CEO of NuCurrent; Joshua Smith, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington; Chengbin Ma, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan; and Professor Melike Erol-Kantarci of the University of Ottawa.

One of the topics we discussed was the evolution of wireless charging along a flight path similar to Wi-Fi. At first, Wi-Fi routers could only cast their signal reliably for about a foot or two—but gradually that distance expanded as the technology matured. Over-the-air charging will follow a similar progression. It’s only a matter of time before over-the-air chargers will be delivering power to devices at a distance of many feet.

As we move forward as a society, wireless charging will be the last cord we cut. We are just at the beginning stages of wireless power transmission and it’s only a matter of time until we’ll be increasing distance and transmitting ever greater amounts of power over the air.

The need for standards

All of our virtual panelists agreed that a vital step in the successful development of wireless charging is standardization. Companies in the industry must coalesce around a common over-the-air charging standard and must come together to form an ecosystem around that standard, just as Qi has become the accepted standard for wireless power transfers using inductive charging over short distances.

Standards are essential for interoperability, of course, but they also help drive down costs. This means that a standard for wireless power will make it even more attractive in the eyes of device manufacturers. Unfortunately, standards often don’t move as quickly as the pace of innovation.

The panelists were asked if they see multiple standards on the horizon. From a business point of view, there are many markets that could potentially be served by wireless charging. The consensus among the panelists was that there will likely be multiple standards but they expressed hope that there will be coexistence among whatever standards ultimately emerge.

The promise of wireless power

Looking to the future, there is no reason why we won’t be able to charge multiple consumer and industrial devices wirelessly via radio frequency. RF can enable both long-distance charging and near-field charging. But we’re not there yet.

As of now, a major opportunity for wireless charging is small, low-power devices like hearing aids, fitness bands, sensors, and similar devices. From there we can refine the techniques and establish the regulatory environment needed to increase power transmission and move to a broader range of devices.

The panelists expressed hope that, one day, autonomous devices like self-driving cars will be able to charge themselves wirelessly over the air without any human assistance. They said they see this eventuality as one of the great promises of wireless power.

Wireless charging safety

The panelists also addressed one of the most common concerns when it comes to wireless power: Is it safe? Yes, the testing and regulatory certifications have proven that, but we can also take a step back to look at some past technologies that also came with safety concerns when they emerged.

As an example, we once again used Wi-Fi. Twenty-five years ago, a big topic of debate was how much power could safely be transmitted over Wi-Fi. At that time, it was believed that just 1 watt of power was out of the question due to safety concerns. Today, of course, we know that Wi-Fi is safe.

The road ahead

Asked to look out over the next 10 years, the panelists said they believe we’ll see the rise of consumer devices complete with architectures that are optimized for advanced wireless power transfer. And when that happens, we’ll all be enjoying a new world of wireless power.

As one panelist rightly stated: “The future is easy to see, it’s just hard to see when it will happen.” But it is crystal clear that wireless charging is a vital technology that will inevitably reach mass adoption.

You can check out the entire discussion here.