ELE Times December 2016 Electronics News in India | Online Electronics Mag | Page 52

Wireless Power

Witricity Leverages Magnetic Resonance
for Flexible Wireless Charging
- Lexi Carver

I

magine coming home and dropping
your phone, laptop, and Bluetooth
headset on your kitchen table so that
they all recharge, simultaneously. Or
driving your electric car into a garage,
parking above a mat, and knowing it will
be charged in the morning. Or being told
by your doctor that there is a new
medical implant to replace the one you
wear—and the new version does not
include power cords or the need to
replace batteries.

Engineers at WiTricity have used multiphysics simulation in the innovative
development of wireless power transfer technology that extends efficiency and
charging ranges beyond the reach of existing methods.

Wireless power transfer is making these
scenar¬ios and other applications a
reality by delivering a cord¬less way to
charge electronic devices. WiTricity, a
Watertown, MA-based company that
develops wire¬less charging technology
based on magnetic resonance, has
launched the most consumer-friendly
method avail¬able for the wireless
transfer of electrical power. Invented at
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) by Professor Marin

ELE Times | 52 | December, 2016

Soljacic and a team of research¬ers,
WiTricity’s technology has the ability to
charge mul-tiple devices at once, over
distances and through mate¬rials like
wood, plastic, granite, and glass.
Companies such as Toyota, Intel, and
Thoratec have already licensed the
technology for use in hybrid-electric
vehicles, smart¬phones, wearable
electronics, and heart pumps.