Until now, the main market for wireless charging has been personal electronics, with the three key industry consortia developing standards that are primarily focused, at least initially, on adding wireless power capability to smartphones.
Getting rid of the connector
While some argue that the principal value of wireless charging for mobile phones is convenience – in many other applications, such as wearable, medical or portable battery-powered equipment, the real advantage of wireless charging is the ability to get rid of the connector. For example, the popular Moto 360 smartwatch is waterproof and smaller because wireless charging removes the need for a connector. In many industrial and medical applications, wireless power provides other advantages. Industrial systems benefit from not having a physical connector that can get dirty; and medical applications profit from the ability to have a product that is totally hermetically sealed, making it easier to clean.
Industrial and medical systems often need more than the 5 Watts of power presently supported by the wireless charging systems currently in the market. Those designs frequently use bigger, multi-cell batteries that need more power to charge.
The new bq500215 transmitter and the bq51025 receiver are wireless power products which, when working together, enable up to 10-W of power to a load, while also featuring the capability of charging two batteries in series. To increase flexibility, these devices are also designed to be Qi-compliant up to 5W, so they can work with tens of thousands of existing Qi devices but just at a lower charge rate.
In 5 to 10 years, wireless power will be much more pervasive than what we see today. And I firmly believe smartphones will not be the primary market driver of adoption. Many designers of innovative applications will take advantage of removing the connector and make their devices waterproof.
P.S. I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 that uses a wireless charging back cover. For those that don’t know, this phone is made water resistant by having a ‘funky’ cover over the connector. Wireless charging makes it much easier to charge my waterproof phone! What other end-equipment applications do you wish were made waterproof through wireless charging?
Additional Resources:
- Check out the 10-Watt news release
- Watch the 10-Watt wireless power solution video
- Click here for details on TI’s comprehensive portfolio of wireless power solutions
Efficiency curve for TI's new wireless charging solution::
Get started designing today using the new easy-to-use bq51025 receiver evaluation module and bq500215 transmitter evaluation module.
