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WiTricity To Be Used In First Wirelessly Powered Devices by Next Christmas

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WiTricity Corp is seemingly following Tesla’s work in wireless power transmission. Their “WiTricity” technology is nowadays capable of wirelessly transferring power by using magnetic resonance over several meters.

The company was founded in 2007 by MIT professor Marin Soljacic, and now, in 2009, they have a commercial product, arousing the interest of Intel, Qualcomm and Sony. In an interview to Tech-On, Eric Giler, Witricity CEO, says: “Our goal is to commercialize WiTricity technology as the standard for wireless power transfer. In addition to IP licensing, we will also manufacture our own components, and sell them under original equipment manufacturer (OEM) licenses to companies manufacturing mobile telephones, home electronics and automobiles.”

WiTricity originally planned to deliver their first sample to interested developers in 2010, but it seems plans are before the schedule now, and now they surprise the market with disclosing the information that the first products using WiTricity will be shipped to customers at the end of 2010 earliest. This could mean we will be able to charge our new phones wirelessly the next Christmas. The name of their partners hasn’t been published.

The frequency band WiTricity is going to use will be between 300 kHz and 20 MHz. The weak magnetic field these devices are going to produce are not going to affect the operation of other wireless devices, and comply with IEEE standards, but several other issues arise over health concerns, and the rules of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Some Japanese manufacturers have said that magnetic power values exceed the safety imposed by ICNIRP’s rules.

Giler’s reply to this was: “Of course we’re aware of the ICNIRP. To be very clear, all of these regulations – the IEEE, ICNIRP and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the US – are merely guidelines, with no binding authority. The only enforceable limit is electromagnetic field strength emitted by mobile phones and the like: the specific absorption ratio (SAR).”

The issue that appeared was in the automotive industry, where the usage in automobiles increased the acceptable magnetic field level over the accepted limit. WiTricity’s CEO replied that the places these devices are going to be used in an automobile will be chosen to prevent harmful interference with the human body.

Here’s Giler talking about and demonstrating the WiTricity technology, live:

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