Didn’t ipXchange already discuss wireless power transmission this week? In this ipXperience, Guy chats with Cesar Johnston, President and CEO at Energous, another partner of AirFuel Alliance and a key innovator from the transmission side of this highly disruptive field. For even more context from the energy harvesting and standards side of this technology, check out our AirFuel Alliance ipXperience here, featuring Atmosic.
As Cesar explains, RF (Radio Frequency) technology for power delivery differs from that used for data communications. With a much higher power output than Wi-Fi, for example, there are safety concerns about the amount of exposure that the human body can handle when transmitting large amounts of energy wirelessly.
Thankfully, Energous’ technology operates at a level where a single 15-W (conducted) power transmitter can power numerous IoT devices in a room while giving around half of the RF exposure that one might expect from a mobile phone. Energous’ 1- and 2-W PowerBridge transmitters are able to power IoT sensor nodes and smart tags at a distance of 15 and 22 metres away respectively.
The low cost of Energous’ solution enables engineers to support large-scale deployments of wireless power by using multiple transmitters to cover a wide area. This is useful in applications such as retail or warehousing for electronic shelf labels, for example, as well as IoT. Better yet, Energous’ PowerBridges also support data communications to streamline power and data infrastructure in your IoT.
As well as IoT, Guy and Cesar also discuss the topics of the day, such as edge processing and how wireless power transmission aids this – in this case, processing power is not limited by battery lifetime of an end node – as well as how partnerships with energy harvesting companies like Atmosic and e-peas support the adoption of wireless power technology.
Learn more about Energous and wireless power transmission by following the link to the board page below, where you can apply to test this technology using Energous’ evaluation kit.
Keep designing!
Love the idea of wireless power transfer? Check our these other ipXchange interviews:
How to wirelessly power IoT sensors from 10 m away
An extreme-low-power Bluetooth SoC with built-in energy harvesting for batteryless IoT devices!
Never change your TV remote batteries again! e-peas’ latest PMICs for ambient energy harvesting
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