Tech giant Apple has reached another breakthrough in its wireless charging ambitious pursuit. It has been granted an important patent that would enable iPhones to be charged wirelessly through a Wi-Fi router.
The new patent grant means that Apple can now realize its ambition of charging the devices without clunky cables and mobile chargers — an area that has remained a problem for many of the devices created by Apple.
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The patent which was subsequently filed a couple of years ago in October, 2015 has been made public by US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday. The detailed document filed to the patent office explains about a system that will be able to harness the wireless signals which are emitted by Wi-Fi routers thus helping the electronic devices to be charged.
NERD SCIENCE BEHIND THE ROUTER AND THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED
Apple documents filed for the patent show that the theory behind the wi-fi charger system revolves around focusing the wi-fi signals from the router at the device. This would be done by dual polarization and dual frequency antennas which will be able to transfer power over a range of frequencies including the cellular frequency range (700 MHz to 2700 MHz), Wi-Fi (2.4GHz to 5 GHz), and millimeter wave (10 GHz to 400 GHz).
Apple is yet to clarify whether these routers will be having dual functionality of providing both power and inter data carrying capability at the same time.
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This patent might be a big breakthrough for Apple which has tried similar technologies with relatively low or no rate of success. One problem that has been faced in the past was the nature of wireless routers — the Wi-Fi routers produce non continuous signals in bursts making it impossible for antenna based mechanisms to continuously focus on a device and charge it constantly.
University of Washington had developed a wireless charging mechanism in 2015 using antennas and temperature sensors. However, it was unable to create a constant stream of electricity that could be used by handheld or other devices for charging purposes. Earlier this year Disney Research created a method, called “quasistatic cavity resonance“, which enables rooms and cabinets to “generate quasistatic magnetic fields that safely deliver kilowatts of power to mobile receivers contained nearly anywhere within“.
Other companies, including, but not limited to, Energous, uBeam, and WiTricity have also demonstrated the capability to manage wireless charging as the competition to create a viable wireless charging solution continues to heat.
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