Energous Shifts Future Focus to Energy Harvesting, Military Applications
Wireless power company Energous’ vision has changed, said CEO Stephen Rizzone, at a Wednesday tech conference. Rizzone recalled demonstrating wireless charging with a smartphone at the 2014 CES, and while the company can do that in its San Jose, California, lab, “it’s not an opportunity we should be focusing on.”
“It has taken longer than we anticipated to get to this point, and it’s cost us more money, but we are at a positive inflection point,” Rizzone said, touting the company’s ability to do contact-based and at-a-distance wireless charging. In the past, Rizzone positioned Energous’ WattUp technology as a competitor to Qi; now, he says, second-generation wireless charging will include Qi and WattUp technology. Energous expects wireless power transfer at 900 MHz to become a global standard as part of the ITU and International Special Committee on Radio Interference, said Rizzone.
The company has downsized designs, turning its attention to markets and opportunities where it can gain regulatory approval and offer customers simplified reference designs, Rizzone said. Near term, those are hearing aids and smart glasses. Energous reduced the cost of implementing its technology: “The bill of materials is a fraction of what it was a year ago,” he said.
Rizzone called Energous’ May PowerHub reveal (see 2005070035) a “major announcement” because it reduced the number of antennas required in a device, making its wireless power solution less expensive and easier to implement. PowerHub, a single-antenna design with one power amplifier chip and a single control chip, enables charging up to 250 milliwatts “out to about a foot, going to three feet,” he said.
PowerHub will be the basis for a future direction for Energous: energy harvesting, said Rizzone. Its designs can also be “ruggedized” for military applications, he said. Those applications won’t hit market before 2022, he said. The company doesn’t expect to be profitable in 2020 or 2021, he said.
China-based company NewSound, which delayed a hearing aid using Energous technology (see 2008060067) due to COVID-19, is expected to begin shipping “in a few weeks,” Rizzone said. Additional hearing aid announcements are expected “possibly” by year-end, into 2021, he said. Energous has 225 patents, 65 pending.