Apple Patent Hints iPhones Will Be Charged over Wi-Fi One Day

We reported early last year that Apple was collaborating with its Far East supply chain partners in an effort to develop some form of long-distance wireless charging technology, which would allow compatible devices to receive battery power without being connected to a power source via Lightning/USB. Though the concept, at the time, ultimately faced a number of challenges, such as figuring out how to reduce lost energy as the result of distance, itself, a recently publicized Apple patent appears to shed some additional light on the company’s ongoing efforts to revolutionize wireless charging as we know it.

Specifically, according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark filing made public on Thursday, Apple is investigating a variety of medium- and long-distance wireless changing technologies, which could one day allow iPhones, iPads, or other compatible devices to charge wirelessly via nothing more than a user’s in-home Wi-Fi router.

Dubbed “Wireless Charging and Communications Systems With Dual-Frequency Patch Antennas,” Apple’s patent details various methods by which power can be transferred to compatible electronic devices via the same frequencies commonly reserved for data communications equipment — such as a Wi-Fi router, or other “suitable wireless communications link.”

The patent notes how power could transfer over various frequencies, including “cellular links between 700 MHz and 2700 MHz,” or “Wi-Fi links operating between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.” Presumably to offset the complications of reduced energy flow over a wireless link, however, Apple’s patent appears to apply specifically to the 802.11ad Wi-Fi channels, which are currently being operated over the 60 GHz WiGig standard.

Apple’s design, like the majority of contact-based wireless charging solutions on the market today, requires the use of two antenna and wireless circuitry-equipped devices — including a compatible iPhone, for example, in addition to a receiver capable of omitting frequencies of various amplitudes. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the amplitude (MHz/GHz) of any given wireless system is an indication of the distance its capable of achieving.

As opposed to Apple’s existing wireless charging tech, such as the power-only inductive charging disc used in the Apple Watch, the company’s new invention deviates quite substantially by incorporating both components and circuitry to handle the delivery of power and communications with a distant source.

Unfortunately, while the patent clearly outlines the theoretical possibilities of transmitting power wirelessly via a communications link, it stops short of providing any specific details about how to implement the various beam-forming antennas that would enable the technology to be incorporated into a commercialized product.

Although Apple is widely expected to incorporate some form of wireless charging tech into this year’s iPhone 8, its highly unlikely that the frequency-based solution outlined in this patent will be developed by then — but it’s certainly nice to see Apple back at work trying to revolutionize the industry, nevertheless.

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