Energous Gains FCC Approval For Over The Air Power Delivery Technology

Energous is a company that has been working on what many people have lusted after for years: true wireless charging of devices. We aren’t talking about having to sit your smartphone or other device down on a pad to charge them without having to fiddle with wires; that has been available for many years now. What Energous is talking about is wireless charging through the air.

That means you leave your smartphone in your bag or pocket and it would charge automatically. The tech is called WattUp, and is wire-free power-at-a-distance charging technology. The FCC granted the company the first certification of its kind in the industry for the first-generation WattUp mid field transmitter. Energous says WattUp "sends focused, RF-based power to devices at a distance. As the first FCC certification for power-at-a-distance wireless charging under Part 18 of the FCC's rules, this development represents a new era of wireless charging, and opens up a tremendous opportunity for the electronics industry."

Energous says that its WattUp technology underwent multiple months of "rigorous testing" to verify that the technology was safe and met regulatory requirements. The tech is the only product out there that can do both contact-based and non-contact based wireless charging. WattUp can also charge multiple devices at the same time from a distance of up to three feet.

"WattUp from Energous represents an incredibly positive lifestyle change," said Martin Cooper, Energous Board of Directors member and 'Father of the Cell Phone' -- a pioneer and visionary of the wireless industry. "This ground-breaking technology allows users to automatically charge their WattUp-enabled devices without having to remove them from their wrist or pocket, plug them in or place them on a mat to charge, freeing them from ever having to think about charging their devices again."

WattUp supports Wireless Charging 2.0 and is similar to Wi-Fi in that the ecosystem supports interoperability between receivers and transmitters. This means that technology from all manufacturers will work together making a flexible ecosystem just as we enjoy now with WiFi. Energous says that it will make the ecosystem accessible for consumers and manufacturing partners.

Energous points out that this is the first time that an FCC equipment certification has been awarded to a device that charges wirelessly at a distance under Part 18 of the FCC rules that permit higher-power operation than Part 15 rules allow. The Part 15 rules have been used to approve other distance charging devices in the past. WattUp will be on display at CES 2018.