Last Monday, the Wireless Power Consortium released their “0.95″ technical specifications and revealed a new logo. The logo designates that a product is compatible with their wireless charging standard. Similarly, the well-established “WiFi” logo denotes interoperability between wireless local area network (WLAN) devices communicating via IEEE 802.11 specifications. Unlike the widely accepted “WiFi” logo, the Wireless Power Consortium’s “Qi” logo lacks any semblance of intuitiveness. The Wireless Power Consortium chose “Qi” because it means “vital energy” in Chinese. I have a slight suspicion that the average consumer will fail to see the natural relationship between the “Qi” logo and wireless power. “WiFi” is simple and intuitive…and it sounds like wireless! Based on initial reactions (one blogger asked, “Does anyone else see this and see someone seated, hands on knees, boaking his guts up?”), others seem to agree that “Qi” is obscure and overcomplicated.

The Wireless Power Consortium’s technical specifications follow this trend with their overly-complicated receiver specifications. Their specifications require digital communication between the transmitter and the receiver. The receiver must send a digital signal to the transmitter to indicate that it is a compatible receiver and to specify its power requirements. Additionally, the receiver provides an error signal to a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller on the transmitter. All of these complexities are unnecessary. No communication requirements exist with WiPower’s technology. We use the principles of magnetic induction to detect appropriate loads. There is no communication module or PID controller required. This allows us to maintain low component counts, low BOM costs and therefore, low cost points.

Thanks,
Ed
(Electrical Engineer)