Samsung Banking on A4WP to Improve Smartphone Charging Options
Samsung supports “as many wireless charging options as possible” for its smartphones, Michael Lin, marketing manager for Samsung Mobile, told Consumer Electronics Daily Thursday, but he sought to underscore the company’s commitment to the wireless power transfer (WPT) technology being pushed by the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) for future devices. The focus on wireless charging widened late last week when the competing Wireless Power Consortium trumpeted its Qi wireless charging technology for the much-hyped Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone that will ship in late April.
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A4WP took advantage of the S4 spotlight last week to promote a backplate wireless power solution that’s akin to Qi solutions currently available for Galaxy S III and other smartphones. With Qi magnetic induction charging technology, “you have to align a device perfectly on a charging pad so that coils are aligned to get a charge,” Lin said, saying even a slight misalignment can interrupt the charging process. With upcoming wireless charging methods that use near-field magnetic resonance, which A4WP calls a “tuned version” of magnetic induction, users can “place a device anywhere on that pad,” Lin said. The flexibility allows for simultaneous multiple-device charging and more convenience for consumers who can casually place a device on a charge plate without ensuring perfect alignment, he said.
In the magnetic resonance charging world, charging doesn’t have to take place from the bottom of a device, Lin said, opening up opportunities for new form factors not possible today. He offered the concept of a charging cup holder for mobile phones in vehicles. “There’s X, Y and Z-plane flexibility” in terms of where a device is placed relative to a transmitter, he said. One of A4WP’s founding member companies is Gill Industries, a manufacturer of mechanical and electro-mechanical assemblies for the automotive and furniture markets, Lin noted. “There’s been strong interest from furniture manufacturers from the onset,” he said.
Samsung is “investing heavily” in A4WP because “battery technology has not quite kept pace” with the advancements in processors and the applications running off those processors, Lin said. It’s important to give consumers the ability to charge their smartphones “wherever they go, all day long,” because mobile devices are “becoming the center of their computing world,” Lin said.
Smartphones are the most compelling case initially for WPT technology, Lin said. The alliance sees the technology being integrated into tablets “very soon” and “up to laptops” in size and power requirements, he said. Digital cameras and Bluetooth headsets are likely candidates for wireless charging features near-term, too, he said.
A4WP’s role is to ensure interoperability among certified transmitters and receivers, Lin said, “but there will still be opportunity for optimization” allowing for differentiation. On how different manufacturers’ interpretations of the standard in the customization process might affect compatibility, Lin said, “any A4WP-certified receiving device should be able to charge another A4WP-certified transmitter.” One area for differentiation in wireless charging products could be in antenna design, where different approaches could deliver improved efficiency or a desired form factor, he said. Compatibility will be ensured with certified products, but the performance might deliver “a better experience for consumers” depending on implementation, he said.
Products coming out of the A4WP’s certification process won’t carry an A4WP logo, Lin said. Branding and logo development is in line with certification processes, Lin said, and branding will be announced when certification and testing programs are launched later this year.
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Researchers at companies such as BASF, Toyota and IBM are in early stages of development of power cells that offer up to 10 times the energy density of today’s lithium-ion designs, according to a report from Lux Research on the roadmap for next-generation batteries. Technologies based on lithium-air, lithium-sulfur, zinc-air and solid-state technology “are still not ready for prime time,” said Cosmin Laslau, research analyst at Lux Research, saying cost and transportation issues are hurdles to commercialization. “Cost-insensitive” military applications will provide the entry point for some of these technologies around 2020, Laslau said, with consumer electronics following “a little later” with “significant adoption of solid-state batteries,” he said. Laslau predicted cost parity of next-gen batteries with lithium-ion in 2024, while solid-state batteries are expected to reach the cost of lithium-ion by 2021.