Wireless Electricity
What is it?

The understanding that electricity could travel through the air has been around since Tesla. Frequencies have been used to transmit an electrical signal since the 1800’s and now the world is seeing the next level of the frequency evolution. The new standard in power is wireless and it has the ability to revolutionize nearly every industry that benefits from the use of power. Everything from a small toy to a large industrial air handler can be run without wires and instead be a standalone unit that never loses power.
The basis of wireless power transfer occurs between a handful of phenomena that have been discovered by scientists recently. Magnetism is something that we have been exposed to since early in our lives. Electromagnetism we have always known to be magnets coupled with electricity makes the magnet stronger. Magnetic induction has been around since 1831, it was theorized by Michael Faraday to be the medium to induce current in a nearby circuit (BBC). Energy and power coupling is a virtual handshake between the sending and receiving units. There does not have to physical contact to deliver the power and this is where the science gets even more interesting.
Resonance is a delivery method that isn’t new to us because we have been using it for centuries. It is a naturally occurring frequency that occurs when the system of kinetic energy interacts with potential energy (Witricity, NA). Resonant magnetic coupling can be considered the magic behind wireless electrical transfer. The transmitter – this is the component that sends a frequency which is tuned to its receiver on the device that needs power. The transmitter and the receiver will have oscillating magnetic fields that are tuned to the same frequency; it is here that the power transfer is accomplished.

* Wireless Electricity

History

While it may seem that wireless energy transfer is something out of a futuristic movie, in actuality it is something that we have been using for some time now. Some electrical toothbrushes have a charging base where there is no metal on metal contact. There are charging pads for mobile devices, eliminating the need for cords for each device. This however is still the infancy in the life of electrical power. We have a long way to go to see the impact that this technology can have on our lives, nation and world.
“The transmission of power without wires will very soon create an industrial revolution and such as the world has never seen before,” Nikola Tesla (IEEE, 2010) .Tesla wrote this to George Westinghouse in 1906. Over one hundred years later we are now seeing his vision come to fruition albeit at a snail’s pace. Tesla envisioned that a global undertaking of wireless electricity would impact every facet of our lives; everything from cars, airplanes, industrial complexes and residential homes could be powered wirelessly and safely (Vujovic, 1998).
The past century has seen some small hops to large leaps forward in the race to make wireless electricity a household name. In late 1800’s there were demonstrations of wireless power transfer as far as thirty miles. The early 1900’s saw a pause in the research of the technology and this may be due to the ignorance of the US government as to what the power could do. 1961 was the start of the new renaissance in wireless energy transfer and from then there have been numerous breakthroughs that have contributed greatly to the cause.

References

* BBC. (n.d.). Michael Faraday. Retrieved April 12, 2014, from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/faraday_michael.shtml
IEEE. (2010, April 30). A Critical Look at Wireless Power. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from Spectrum.IEEE.Org: http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/mass-transit/a-critical-look-at-wireless-power
Vujovic, D. L. (1998, July 10). Tesla Biography. Retrieved April 8, 2014, from Tesla Society: http://teslasociety.com/biography.htm
Witricity. (NA). Witricity Technology: The Basics. Retrieved April 12, 2014, from Witricity.com: http://www.witricity.com/pages/technology.html

WIRELESS POWER TIMELINE

WIRELESS POWER TIMELINE

1890 - 1900

1893 – Nicola Tesla demos wireless illumination of phosphorescent lamps in Chicago

1894 – Tesla wirelessly lights single-terminal incandescent lamps in NYC by ”electrodynamic induction”

1896 – Tesla transmits signals over 48 km/30 mi

1897 – Guglielmo Marconi uses an ultra-low frequency radio transmitter to send Morse code over 6 km/4 mi

1898 – Heinrich Rudolf Herz confirms the existence of electromagnetic radiation

1900 - 1968

1901 – Marconi transmits signals across the Atlantic Ocean using Tesla’s apparatus

1961 – William C. Brown publishes an article that explores the possibilities of microwave power transmission

1967 – Brown demonstrates on CBS News with Walter Cronkite a microwave-powered model helicopter that received all the power needed for flight from a microwave beam

1968 – Peter Glaser proposes wirelessly transferring solar energy captured in space using
”power beaming” technology 1969 - 1995

1973 – Prof. Don Otto develops a small trolley powered by induction at the University of Auckland, New Zealand

1973 – The world’s first passive RFID system demonstrated at Los Alamos National Lab

1975 – Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex performs experiments in the tends of kilowatts

1988 – Under Prof. John Boys the University of Auckland creates Auckland UniServices Company, and conclude that inductive power transmission should be achievable

1988 – Auckland UniServices develops a prototype for a contact- less power supply, and patents the technology

1996 - 2007

1996 – Auckland UniServices develops an electric bus power system using inductive power transfer (IPT) to charge 30-
60 kW. First commercial
IPT bus is commissioned.

1998 – Alticor first demonstrates wireless power technology to power the ultraviolet lamp in its eSpring water purification system

2001 – Splashpower forms in the UK and uses resonant coils in a flat pad to transfer tens of Watts

2002 – US Patent Office grants first wireless power patent to Alticor

2006 – Alticor establishes
Fulton Innovation LLC

2007 – Fulton launches eCoupled

2007 – Prof Marin Soljacic and team at MIT confirms Prof. Boys’ work by wirelessly powering a 60W light

2008 - 2010

2008 – Fulton Innovation acquires Splashpower

2008 – Intel reproduces Tesla’s 1894 implementation and Prof. Boys’ experiments by wirelessly powering a light

2008 – Formation of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC)

2008 – Wildcharge introduces a charging pad

2008 – Palm introduces PalmPre with Touchstone wireless charging kit

2009 – Powermat launches wireless mat products

2009 – eCoupled integrated into Dell’s Latitude Z laptop

2010 – WPC approves world’s first wireless power standard (Qi) for low-powered devices

2011 – WPC reaches 100 company members