(iTers News) - Power has never more mattered. To the dismay of heavy users of smart phones, who want to use them for as long a while as possible, a 3D game playing, an anytime and anywhere access to lightning speed 4G LTE-A network, and a full HD display are all about the way of how quickly to drain the battery power of their smart phones. 


For mobile service carriers, the rapid power drainage is disappointing, too, as it will steal much of the chance of keeping their subscribers online longer and then charging them more for their access to premium data service.


This partly helps explain why mobile service carrier AT&T and Verizon Wireless are joining hands with other eco-system partners to create a constellation of wireless charging stations across the U.S. For one thing, the fast rollout of wireless charging stations will greatly benefit their subscribers, making them to use their smart phone for longer hours. It is also very instrumental in collecting data about where and what their subscribers are doing, as the charging infrastructure can link up with their cellular network to keep track of their movements and activities.


Magnetic inductance vs. magnetic resonance 

For example, it can help them to better do various CRM, or customer relations management services, allowing them to tailor their customer services to their subscribers’ palate. Thus, it can be another revenue stream, because they can charge retailer chain stores or would-be advertisers for their custom-made services.

Mobile phone makers are also championing wireless charging technology as one of key features on their smart phone product family to better serve users.

All combined, their common interests will soon likely drive up demand for wireless charging system.

Fabless chipmaker IDT, or Integrated Device Technology Ltd. is angling to capitalize on the demand potential by supplying chips solutions for the wireless charging system –a transmitter and a receiver chip.    

“We do software updates wirelessly. We communicate with PCs wirelessly. We download music and pictures wirelessly. For some reasons, we can be untethered from power supply,” said Jeffrey S. McCreary CEO with IDT at Analog Semiconductor Forum 2013 held in Seoul.

Added he. “You use devices to watch video clips on last night’s baseball games , or listen to music, or to play games. You are using the devices all the time. The last thing, be they service providers, or developers of applications, they want is not to use it, because you don’t have power. The more you use these devices, the more power it draws, the more likely it will run out. The challenge becomes how to solve it. The idea of being able to easily in lots or places without having been connected up to charge the device really offers distinct benefits for users. That makes great market. There is no question that the market will be big. That’s terrific to participate in.” True enough, high-end, premium smart phones are rapidly adopting the wireless charging system, opening up new market opportunities for chip makers.

    According to some estimates, combined shipments of wireless charging transmitter and receiver chips would hit 1.5 billion units by 2021. In real value terms, the chip solution market will be worth more than US$ 250 million in 2013 and, by 2021, would jump to more than US$10 billion.

The market potential is so attractive, but delivering on it won’t be easy, because the wireless charging technology has yet to fully mature.   

For one thing, the chip architecture is so complex, as it has to integrate lots of analog mixed signal blocks as well as digit circuitry on a single piece of silicon, including RF blocks, power management blocks, EMI, communications blocks, signal processing, closed lop control and magnetic blocks.

Equally challenging is that there are different standards of wireless charging technologies, which will eventually result in incompatibility among devices and then threaten to fragment the market.   



Dual mode chip    


Broadly speaking, there are two types of technologies - magnetic resonance and magnetic induction wireless charging technologies.

Well known for its Qi trademark, WPC, wireless power consortium is an industry-wide consortium that uses magnetic induction technology to charge wireless devices on the go. Verizon Wireless and smart phone makers like LG and Nokia are members of the WPC, to name a few.

Initiated by Duracell Powermat Technologies and Procter & Gamble, the PMA, or Power Matters All consortium also utilizes the magnetic induction power to transfer energy. U.S. mobile service carrier AT&T is strongly championing the PMA standard.

Alliance for Wireless Power, or A4WP is a consortium that supports the magnetic resonance technology. Qualcomm and Intel are strongly championing the technology. .

The magnetic Inductance technology uses magnetic coils to inductively couple a receiver coil and a transmitter coil. Its disadvantage is that it requires users to exactly position their smart phones on a charging mat or pad to charge them.

The magnetic resonance technology loosely couples a transmitter and a receiver, so that it guarantees a spatial freedom, allowing users to randomly put their   devices on a wireless charging mat. One mat also charge many devices simultaneously, but its energy density, or charging power is lower, compared with the inductance technology.

IDT works on all two technology standards. The chip maker is also champing WPC and PMA standards simultaneously.    

For example, the chip maker already started sample shipments of IDTP9021, the world’s first dual-mode wireless receiver chip for PMA and WPC. It comes complete with analog, digital, RF communications blocks, and microcontrollers on a single silicon die.

What makes just a difference with its first version of wireless power charging receiver chip for WPC standard is that it integrates a PMA standard algorithm into its ROM circuitry, allowing it automatically to switch back and forth between WPC and PMA protocol. 

Crack open the dual-mode IDTP9021 chip, and you can find all the same silicon components sit on a single die that first generation of IDTP 9020 integrates, but with one twist –PMA algorithm firmware.

They include an integrated synchronous buck converter, embedded microcontroller, synchronous full bridge rectifier, ADC, thermal loop control, USB/adaptor controller and security authentication and foreign object detection firmware. Volume production will begin sometime in 2013. IDT is also working on magnetic resonance-based  A4WP standard, aiming to commercialize a A4WP-complaint chip solution in 2014.


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