Puzzled how does wireless charging work? Are you still one of the people who are coping with keeping up the battery levels of mobile phones can be tasked especially if we get relegated to finding power outlets or limited by the restrictions of wired accessories.
However, thanks to the power of technological advancements, these limitations are curbed with the integration of wireless charging capabilities into our mobile devices. Today, you can simply drop your device onto a surface and it is all juiced up in time.
In this piece, we provide more insight into how does wireless charging work.
What is Wireless Charger?
[source: computerworld]
Many are asking what are the science behind the wireless charging and how does wireless charging work? Like the more traditional charging unit, a wireless charger is a device that allows you to increase the battery level of your mobile device without having to plug it into a power source.
But how does wireless charging work? Technically, a wireless charger is a medium that transfer power to your device without the need for a connecting cable. Wireless chargers are of different types with charging pads or mat the commonest.
While a wireless charger would provide the means of charging your mobile device without worrying about cords, this mode of charging is not completely free of cables. In fact, the charger gets its power from being plugged to a power source.
The market boasts of several forms of chargers with these capabilities. They include charging mats, wireless charging cases, purses and stands.
How Does Wireless Charging Work?
So how does wireless charging work? Wireless charging involves transfer of energy to your device for increasing its battery level upon contact while curtailing the dependency of these devices on cords for transmittance. It involves a transmitter and a receiver with the concept of inductive charging backing it up.
[source: computerworld]
Inductive charging is a concept that entails the integration of an electromagnetic field for transmittance of energy to and fro the power source and device. As mentioned above, the charging pad or transmitter gets its power from an AC power source.
When this occurs, the transmitter channels the current to create an electromagnetic field through coils present in it. This converted power is then transmitted to the receiver which has built into it a magnetic plate to generate an electric current (DC) to charge up the battery of the device.
Wireless charging however spans over other forms depending on the device to be charged. These include radio charging and resonance charging.
Types of Wireless Charging
Contrary to opinions that wireless charging is only basically limited to smartphones, it spans over several devices and is based on three different concepts.
As such, how does wireless charging work is categorized into radio, inductive and resonance charging depending on the level of energy needed to power up the devices in question:
Radio Charging
This is perhaps the most uncomplicated mode of powering up devices. This type of charging is basically used to power up devices with small power requirements. These include your wireless keyboards, watches, hearing aids and several others.
Like your Wi-Fi router transmits bands that allow you make an internet connection, radio charging transmits radio waves from the wireless chargers and converts it to electric current to power your device.
It differs from other forms of wireless charging by not being limited by size or distance. The receiver of this charger can be integrated into the smallest of devices which is why you have wearables using this form.
Inductive Charging
Basically known for its compatibility for smartphones and other mobile devices. Unlike radio charging which uses shock waves from AC current, an electromagnetic field is created by the action of coils in the transmitter.
In this form of charging, your mobile device has an adapter which allows it to receive power from the transmitter for charging. It is majorly used for devices with medium power requirements.
Resonance Charging
This form of wireless charging is mostly found in devices with relatively high power requirements. It has a similarity with inductive charging by its use of coils in the transmitter to generate power sufficient enough for the devices in contact.
The transmitter uses copper coils to convert AC current from the power source to energy for the copper coils present in the receiver to use for charging up the device. It is used for large computers, vacuum cleaners and electric cars but is limited to short ranges or distances.
What is the range of a wireless charger?
One of the basic factors that define the efficiency of wireless chargers is their ranges. While most inductive chargers restrict charging ranges to a fixed point, there are several chargers that allow you place your devices within certain vicinities of the chargers.
Wireless charging range span from 3.5 inches to 30 foot depending on the brand of chargers used. So like the typical Wi-Fi routers, you can now charge your devices over distances without the encumbrances of wires.
While the compatibility of your devices is a key factor to easy wireless charging, large ranges are basically dependent on the range allowed by the charger. The frequency of the receiver in the device is however an important issue.
How efficient is wireless charging?
As with all improvements in technologies, there are differences in the underlying technologies that makes the newer more suitable and vice versa. Wireless charging seems to prevail on the scale of preference due to its curtailing of mobile devices dependency on cables.
However, one of the major setbacks for these forms of charging still remains the need for the chargers to be charged. On the average the wireless charging efficiency in an end-to-end inductive charger is 51.1% leaving the excess energy to be discharged as heat.
While this looks relatively low to the 65.4% efficiency of the average wired charger, experts argue that there is a significant loss of power between wired chargers and batteries – thus reducing its end to end efficiency and setting wireless charging as a close competitor in the efficiency race.
READ: Wireless Charging Most Common Issues
Charging Speed
While wireless chargers are designed to be up to task in ensuring that your device becomes charged, charging speed remains a major consideration for the choice of a mobile charger. If you’re short on time and need to quickly charge up your device, you might need to go with the traditional charger.
Originally, most wireless chargers were designed to transmit 5W in power but with subsequent developments, these chargers are made to transfer up to 15W of power to devices. Regardless, chargers of these variation are designed to charge up your device overnight.
On the other hand, the latest Qi fast-charging implementations into newer mobile devices and wired chargers stand to challenge the place of wireless chargers in the charging time factor. For optimal results, it is advised to pair up a USB-C cable with a USB-C PS fast charger.
Is wireless charging safe?
Basically, wireless charging is one of the safest means of charging up your device. Wireless chargers are adapted to generate significantly low power through electromagnetic fields to charge up devices without leaving out extra charges to harm the user or the phone.
Is wireless charging better for your phone?
the choice of a charging form is dependent on several factors that appeals to the user. However the summary remains either speed or convenience:
Convenience
Though wireless chargers are still relatively slow, they offer you a better factor for the trade-off. They are simply easier to use. Their configuration makes it such that you don’t have to fumble with wires.
So, especially when you can’t be bothered with plugging out each time you have to pick up your phone, the wireless charger is the best for you. They are made to simplify charging such that all you have to do is to drop your device on to a surface which could be a pad, purse or bag for charging.
On the flip side, wireless chargers don’t really give you the ability to charge and use your phone at the same time. So with these chargers you may not have the advantage of using and juicing up your battery especially when pressed for time.
Though you’d rather not be bothered with cables, there are wired chargers with cords as long as 10-foot designed to allow widen your charging range. Wireless chargers, on the other hand, offer you the convenience of protecting your phone or multitasking with charging cases and stands.
Instead of being restricted to charging pads, wireless charging is now being integrated into car mounts, bedside radios and computer mousepads to ensure you don’t miss out on public charging.
Final Thoughts
Hope we answer your question of how does wireless charging work. With your mobile devices designed to keep you glued to its screen, keeping up its battery levels is important. However, the choice of a charger that suits your needs could be tasking especially considering the several pros and cons of wired and wireless accessories.
While it is not so bad to choose both, the choice of a wireless charger over a wired charger could be worth it considering the ease and simplicity of charging. Luckily, the market boasts of wide range of wireless chargers designed to charge your device over whichever range of choice.
Stores like Unlimited Cellular offers the best wired and wireless accessories to help your keep your phone up to task. It is just a click away.
How does wireless charging work? If you have any related questions, kindly leave a comment below and we are warmly welcome your question or probably create another blog for it.
This is perhaps the most uncomplicated mode of powering up devices. This type of charging is basically used to power up devices with small power requirements. These include your wireless keyboards, watches, hearing aids and several others.
Like your Wi-Fi router transmits bands that allow you make an internet connection, radio charging transmits radio waves from the wireless chargers and converts it to electric current to power your device.
It differs from other forms of wireless charging by not being limited by size or distance. The receiver of this charger can be integrated into the smallest of devices which is why you have wearables using this form.
Basically known for its compatibility for smartphones and other mobile devices. Unlike radio charging which uses shock waves from AC current, an electromagnetic field is created by the action of coils in the transmitter.
In this form of charging, your mobile device has an adapter which allows it to receive power from the transmitter for charging. It is majorly used for devices with medium power requirements.
This form of wireless charging is mostly found in devices with relatively high power requirements. It has a similarity with inductive charging by its use of coils in the transmitter to generate power sufficient enough for the devices in contact.
The transmitter uses copper coils to convert AC current from the power source to energy for the copper coils present in the receiver to use for charging up the device. It is used for large computers, vacuum cleaners and electric cars but is limited to short ranges or distances.
