WiTricity

Key takeaways

WiTricity belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WiTricity to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WiTricity from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

WiTricity Corporation is an American wireless charging technology company based in Watertown, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spin-off was founded by professor Marin Soljačić in 2007. WiTricity technology allows wireless power transfer over distance via magnetic resonance and the company licenses technology and reference designs for wireless electrical vehicle (EV) charging as well as consumer products such as laptops, mobile phones and televisions.

History The company was established by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Marin Soljačić in 2007. The MIT spin-off is based in Watertown, Massachusetts. In 2014, WiTricity joined the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), which later merged with the Power Matters Alliance to form the AirFuel Alliance. Alex Gruzen replaced Eric Giler as chief executive officer (CEO) in 2014. Morris Kesler is chief technology officer (CTO). The company is a member of the Wireless Power Consortium. In 2017, WiTricity began focusing on charging systems for electric vehicles more than consumer technology products. By 2018, WiTricity had partnered with more than a dozen automotive companies, including nine of the world's largest ten, on research and development projects. Audi, Mahle GmbH, and Mitsubishi were among the partnering companies. In 2018, WiTricity was named a New Energy Pioneer by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The company acquired the assets and intellectual property rights of Qualcomm Halo and its inductive charging technology in February 2019; the deal included more than 1,000 patents and patent applications, as well as technology designs and licenses, and made Qualcomm a minority owner of WiTricity. In late 2020, MIT and WiTricity filed an infringement lawsuit against the Pennsylvania-based company Momentum Dynamics over seven wireless energy transfer patents. The lawsuit resulted in the invalidation of six of the asserted patents, and WiTricity filed a second infringement suit in March 2023.

Funding Prior to Toyota's investment in 2011, WiTricity had raised approximately $15 million. By April 2013, WiTricity had received approximately $45 million in funding. After additional funding rounds in 2015 and 2018, the company had raised $68 million. WiTricity had raised approximately $88 million in venture capital by early 2019. Funders have included Delta Electronics, Foxconn, Haier, Intel, Schlumberger, and Toyota. In 2020, WiTricity completed a $34 million round led by Stage 1 Ventures with additional participation by Air Waves Wireless Electricity and Mitsubishi subsidiary Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas). The round was extended for an additional $18 million raised in January 2021; Tony Fadell was among the private investors and joined WiTricity's advisory board. In August 2022, WiTricity completed another round of funding raising $63 million. The round was led by Siemens which invested $25 million and acquired a minority stake in the company earlier in June 2022. Mirae Asset Capital and Japan Energy Fund joined the round along with few other returning investors.

Technology WiTricity's technology allows wireless power transfer over distance via magnetic resonance. Alternating current (AC) electricity runs through an electromagnetic coil within a charging station to form an oscillating electromagnetic field. Another coil resonating at the same frequency captures the field's energy and a rectifier delivers direct current (DC) current to a battery management system. The technology works through various materials, such as stone, cement, asphalt or wood, and has an energy conversion efficiency end-to-end above 90 percent, equivalent to plugging in. By 2013–2014, electric power output had reached 10 W for mobile devices, 6 kW for passenger vehicles, and 25 kW for fleets and buses. WiTricity's EV has charging rates from 3.6 to 11 kW, and the technology scales up to hundreds of kilowatts for heavy duty vehicles such as buses.

Uses WiTricity has reached licensing deals with Anjie Wireless, Delphi (Aptiv), Intel, Mahle, TDK, Toyota, and Zhejiang VIE. Thoratec licensed the technology to produce heart pumps capable of charging automatically. WiTricity has demonstrated wireless charging for consumer products such as laptops, mobile phones, televisions, and solar panel receivers. The company has also shown how the technology can be used to power soldiers' helmets with night-vision goggles wirelessly during Humvee transportation. Dell's 2017 launch of the laptop-tablet Latitude 7285 marked the first commercial consumer product to use the technology. In 2018, BMW's 530e iPerformance became the first vehicle factory equipped with wireless charging, and Hyundai's Kona also demonstrated use of the technology. In January 2019, Honda and WiTricity demonstrated wireless vehicle-to-grid charging at the Consumer Electronics Show. The technology was also being used for the McLaren Speedtail Hyper-GT by 2020. In May 2020, China published their national standard for EV wireless charging which incorporated WiTricity's technology, and WiTricity played a key role in establishing SAE International's J2954 standard for wireless power transfer. In 2022, WiTricity received a $50,000 grant from the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform and the State of Michigan to install a wireless charging station at the Detroit Smart Parking Lab, operated by the American Center for Mobility. The 2022 Hyundai Genesis GV60 uses wireless charging hardware by WiTricity. In 2022, WiTricity licensed its technology with Wiferion, which develops wireless charging systems for industrial applications such as automated guided vehicles, cobots, and trucks.

References

Further reading Matheson, Rob (July 10, 2014). "WiTricity's wireless charging technology is coming soon to mobile devices, electric cars, and more". Phys.org. Bender, Eric. "A world of wireless power". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dai, Zhongyu; Wang, Junhua; Long, Mengjiao; Huang, Hong (March 2017). "A Witricity-Based High-Power Device for Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles". Energies. 10 (3): 323. doi:10.3390/en10030323. "Witricity Leverages Magnetic Resonance for Flexible Wireless Charging". IEEE Spectrum.

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WiTricity

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WiTricity claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WiTricity before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WiTricity ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WiTricity

In research: WiTricity appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WiTricity in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WiTricity is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American companies established in 2007, Companies based in Watertown, Massachusetts, Electric power distribution, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WiTricity outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study WiTricity in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WiTricity means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain WiTricity out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is WiTricity in simple terms?

WiTricity Corporation is an American wireless charging technology company based in Watertown, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spin-off was founded by professor Marin Soljačić in 2007.

Why does WiTricity matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WiTricity?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WiTricity.