New Industry Products

15W Qi-Certified, Extended-Distance Wireless Phone Charger

October 26, 2019 by Paul Shepard

NuCurrent announced the release of its "Qi Extended-Z Tabletop Charger" design through the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). The new design - identified as MP-A17 - is the industry's first Qi-certified, 15-Watt wireless charger design with an extended charging distance of up to 12mm, which is over 3-times the distance of the previous standard.

This advancement in wireless charging technology will drive innovative charger designs in the furniture, automotive, phone accessory and other markets.

"This is a big moment for NuCurrent, the WPC and our industry," said NuCurrent CEO Jacob Babcock. "Standards are critical for developing technologies like wireless power, but so is innovation, and our MP-A17 design dramatically advances the standard, enabling broader use cases and better user experiences across the industry."

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NuCurrent's MP-A17 design was approved this week by the WPC, the global standards body whose members have created and advanced the Qi standard for wireless charging. The design will become part of the WPC's forthcoming specification (version 1.2.4) as well as the WPC's interoperability testbed. NuCurrent has been a member of WPC since 2015 and previously developed other innovative charger designs including the A21 specification for automotive applications.

Prior to the MP-A17 design, Qi wireless charging has required very precise alignment and minimal separation (3- to 5-mm) between the transmitting coil of a charger and the receiving coil of a smartphone. Because of this, some adopters of the technology have cited freedom of placement, charging speeds and charging reliability as shortcomings in their phone charging experiences.

Additionally, furniture manufacturers have had to cut into table surfaces to install wireless chargers, versus being able to offer minimally invasive under-table or through surface chargers. Finally, users with phone cases and other on-phone accessories frequently have to remove or reposition their accessories to take advantage of wireless charging. NuCurrent's MP-A17 design improves all of these use cases by extending the range of the transmitter.

"At the onset, many folks in the industry did not believe that our proposed design was technically possible, but NuCurren't technology, creativity and design expertise proved differently," said Babcock. "Our MP-A17 design brings real innovation to our industry and to the billions of users who benefit from the Qi standard."