Bose, Huawei Lead Latest Member Additions to AirFuel Wireless Charging Alliance

The AirFuel Alliance added 10 members, including Huawei and Bose, and announced products with inductive and resonant wireless charging, in a Wednesday news release. LG’s G6 smartphone, announced at Mobile World Congress, has support for AirFuel’s PMA technology, enabling users to charge wirelessly at home and at public venues such as Starbucks, said the alliance. Gill Electronics unveiled infrastructure charging based on the AirFuel resonant spec that will be part of office furniture from Kimball Office. Kimball will offer the Jolt wireless charging using Gill’s transmitter in desks, cabinets and tables, said AirFuel. OFS Brands is using Gill’s resonant transmitter in an integrated wireless power solution, the alliance said. Enabling multiple devices to be charged from a single unit at longer distances from the transmitter creates a “true furniture integrated” solution that doesn’t require drilling holes into a tabletop, the alliance said. Meanwhile, Chargifi announced an IoT platform based on the AirFuel specification that enables manufacturers, managed service providers and venues to offer wireless power as a service, it said. The platform deploys, monitors and monetizes wireless power, while reporting vitals and usage metrics on charging hot spots in real time. The platform has self-healing technology that’s said to be able to fix transmitters remotely before customers are aware of a problem. Calling 2017 a “watershed year” for wireless charging, AirFuel Alliance President Ron Resnick forecast “significant adoption” of resonant wireless charging and introduction of RF technology. Resonant wireless charging products have been slow to come to market after Qualcomm, Samsung and others founded AirFuel’s predecessor, the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) in 2012 for resonant charging (see 1205080067). A4WP merged with the Power Matters Alliance in 2015, bringing inductive and resonant wireless power technology under the same umbrella (see 1501060013) and extended the reach to RF and "all wireless charging technologies" later in 2015 (see 1511040023). AirFuel members are working to create an ecosystem supporting widespread adoption of wireless charging “based upon best use case,” Resnick said. Other new members are GaN Systems, GenGee, MetaBoards, Motorola Solutions, Redpine Signals, Shenzhen Hongsheng and Zonecharge.