A new Pennsylvania-based company says it has figured out the secret to delivery electricity without wires and could have the technology in devices by the end of next year.
Powercast has developed a pair of chips that send and receive power via radio frequency, with efficiency of 50 to 70 percent, as opposed to the 90-percent signal loss that plagued previous attempts at power via RF. The secret is using he 900MHz band of the RF spectrum.
Don't expect wall warts to disappear overnight, however. Watts delivered decrease with distance from the transmitting source. Laptops won't get any significant juice from RF, while a cell phone battery would need almost a full day to completely recharge. The technology is seen as a better bet for devices such as wireless mice and hearing aids that benefit from a continuous "trickle" charge.
Startup Beams Wireless Power to Charge Devices [ExtremeTech]
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