TI unveils wireless charging chip with 4X powering area

Computerworld - Texas Instruments Wednesday unveiled its first single-stage wireless charging integrated chip (IC). TI said the new IC is 60% smaller than its predecessors.

The company today also added a power controller chip that it said increases the charging area of a pad by 400%.

TI's new bq51050B chip is said to be the industry's first Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) 1.1 Qi-compliant (pronounced "chee") wireless power receiver with an integrated direct battery charger. In the past, multi-stage chips were required to perform the same power-receiving function.

TIs new bq500410A transmitter and new bq51050B receiver chipset. The receiver chipset is 60% smaller than past wireless charging chips.

In addition to the receiver chip, built to be embedded in mobile devices such as smartphones, TI also announced the bq500410A -- its first Qi-qualified wireless power transfer controller.

The controller allows a Qi-compliant smartphone or other portable devices to charge in a surface area of at least 70 mm by 20 mm, 400% larger compared to today's 18-mm by 18-mm "bull's-eye" charge space.

The 20V receiver chip combines rectification, voltage conditioning, communication control and Li-Ion charging capability in a single, tiny integrated circuit (IC), - eliminating the need for a separate battery charger circuit as past multi-stage chips have had.

TI's new chip is already embedded in smartphones and charging pads that will eventually show up in everything from airport terminals and coffee shop tables to the center console of your car.

Patrick Heyer, TI's product line manager for battery charge management and wireless power, said the chipset is based on "closely coupled" magnetic inductive versus "tightly-coupled" charging technology.

The "closely-coupled" technology allows more freedom of movement in relationship to where something like a smartphone can be placed on a charging pad.

"As long as the device is flat on the charging surface, you basically have more degrees of freedom in XY-axis direction than previously released receiver type chips," Heyer said.

By comparison, tightly-coupled magnetic inductive technology requires mobile devices to be placed in an strict charging pad area and moved no more than 1mm in any direction, Heyer said.

TI's new receiver and transmitter ICs are already shipping in the new Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 smartphones. It is also being used in wireless charging accessories, such as the Nokia BH-220 Bluetooth headset and DT-38 cradle, JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker docking station with built-in NFC, and the Nokia Wireless Charging Pillow by Fatboy.

TI's new chipset is used in both the Nokia Fatboy recharge pillow DT-901 and the Nokia Lumia 920 phone

Products from from about 120 companies are certified as compliant with the Qi standard, but most are not shipping today.