Intel announced an agreement today with WiTricity that could one day lead to the end of chargers and power adapters. WiTricity is a company that develops near-field resonant technology that allows simultaneous charging of multiple devices with differing power requirements. In other words they develop products that can charge your phone, tablet, laptop or other devices wirelessly. The wireless charging technology from WiTricity adheres to the Rezence specification, which was developed by the Alliance for Wireless Power. The specification has been adopted by some of the leading mobile chip makers, mobile phone manufacturers and other key industry players. Intel is also part of the A4WP alliance.
The wireless charging space recently expanded with the introduction of A4WP’s Rezence brand, followed by the participation of PC giants, Lenovo and Dell. Now, things are about to get even more interesting as WiTricity and Intel — both being A4WP board members — today announced their technology licensing deal. The basic idea is that WiTricity will be implementing its resonance-based charging technology onto future Intel-powered devices, as according to the Rezence specification. Conveniently, WiTricity’s newly appointed CEO, Alex Gruzen, is a veteran in the laptop industry, which will no doubt help his new company make a bigger push into the PC space. The MIT spinoff’s technology boasts an efficiency of over 90 percent, and since it’s based on magnetic resonance instead of induction, you don’t have to place the devices directly on a pad for the power transfer — they can be placed around the pad, and it even works through various materials like wood and metal. Also, you can charge up multiple devices with a single transmitter, and you can add repeater pads — which can come in the form of floor mats — should you require an extended range. In terms of power output, WiTricity already has solutions providing as little power as 10W for portable devices, all the way up to 6kW for cars; and it’s prepping for 20kW support for even bigger applications.
