Humavox's NEST wireless charging station.
Humavox, an Israeli company operating in the wireless power technology area, this week announced a new wireless charging platform called Eterna. The platform can be integrated with most portable electronic devices to enable wireless charging. Company CEO, Omri Lachman, answered a few questions for us regarding the Humavox’s Eterna.
According to the company’s press-release, experts spent more than three years developing this technology to provide consumers with a seamless charging experience and give manufacturers an accessible platform to integrate wireless charging.
Humavox’s Eterna wireless charging platform allows device manufacturers to rapidly integrate wireless charging into their products. It consists of a charging station that smart-charges devices put inside it (with no placement or orientation inhibitions) and a wireless charging enabler, called ThunderLink, that integrates with a device, using one of the number of available technologies (from printed circuit board to a full application-specific integrated circuit). Humavox states that virtually no engineering and integration efforts are needed in order to incorporate the Eterna charging enabler into a device.
“There are so many different types of devices that require charging through individual USB power cords or other charging methods, many of which are becoming very small and complex in shape,” said Omri Lachman, co-founder and CEO of Humavox. “We’re providing OEMs with a solution that enables all types of devices to be charged wirelessly in a convenient and effective way that doesn’t sacrifice performance. With Humavox, there is no longer a need for wires, flat surfaces or precise placement onto power-charging mats—it’s as simple as putting a device of any shape or size into a box.”
By using radio frequencies, Humavox has eliminated the need for wires and the restrictions of inductive charging. Humavox’s technology transmits RFs over a broad band of frequencies and converts it to voltage to wirelessly charge the battery.
The charging station, called NEST, creates a confined charging space, efficiently controlling energy transfer by transmitting energy only to the devices under charge. NEST allows multiple devices to charge simultaneously, while constantly monitoring and adjusting the charging process for ultimate compliance with the device’s power requirements. NEST is a design-free solution, so that any platform user can determine how the charger will look and feel and what set of features it will have.
Multiple devices can be charged simultaneously.
We asked Omri Lachman a couple of questions about his new wireless charging platform.
Daily Fusion: What are the major features of Humavox’s Eterna that differentiates it from the competitors?
Omri Lachman:Humavox wireless charging differentiators divides roughly into two main areas. First, the consumer experience that is user usability and user experience—the main drive behind our technology. Our technology dismisses limitations, inhibitions, setbacks and all ultimately bad usability out of charging, traditional in general and wireless, in particular. We created a charging experience that was inspired by observing the way users treat their precious electronics and wearables—keeping these in cases, boxes and all sorts of enclosures, from safety, sterility and other considerations. We mimicked that very usability habit and created a charging experience that is as simple as dropping a coin into a box. Moreover, we made sure this great usability benefit is design-free, so every manufacturer and product designer can actually rethink and redesign “power” and charging of its device or devices, while maintaining brand identity, look and feel.
The distinguishing feature is parallel to the first—we made sure that these manufactures and product designers get agile access to wireless charging and can adopt it rapidly, without having to face irrational integration efforts and exceed acceptable BOM cost for a power component. Our ‘enabler’—ThunderLink can integrate with any existing PMIC or Charger IC without occupying troubling space. It can mostly become an integral part of the device’s design and chipset.
Daily Fusion: Is there a limit to the power transfer? How long would it take to charge, say, a modern smartphone wirelessly?
Omri Lachman: No limit applies on Eterna power transfer in its NEST Station. We will be able to charge a smartphone in pretty much the same level its charging in the traditional cord way. We support all known platforms and chemistries, from common to uncommon. We do limit ourselves in that sense as we want to focus on the devices and markets we’re targeting. So everything from ultra low power to smartphone/tablet is within our “power reach”.
However, most devices we’re currently engage with are mid-range consumers. Wearable electronics like monitoring bands, watches and now AR glasses range from 60 mA·h to 550-600 mA·h.
We can charge these devices in the acceptable time as a cord would, but fore and foremost—the way the designer/manufacturers wants it to. some wants to allow fast charging (40 min – 1 hour), some aim towards overnight charging (4 – 6 hours). It really does change on cross-platform basis.
