REDMOND, Wash., April 1, 2015 /MobilityWire/ — Ossia, Inc. (www.ossiainc.com) today announced a new breakthrough for device manufacturers wanting to offer its groundbreaking Cota™ remote wireless power system to consumers. Cota is the first publicly demonstrated remote wireless power system, and the only one capable of charging devices without using line-of-sight at distances as far away as 30 feet. Now device OEMs and ODMs can more easily integrate Cota into new designs without having to add extra antennas for power reception. Using a new patent-pending solution developed by Ossia engineers, existing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas can perform double duty as both data and Cota wireless power receivers.
The patented Cota smart antenna technology transmits power just like Wi-Fi transmits network signals. Cota uses phased antennas to transfer power without the use of inductive coils, ultrasonic waves, magnetic resonance, charging pads or mats. Until now, adding wireless power to devices meant using additional antennas, thereby increasing design complexity and manufacturing costs. By using antennas already built into existing devices, slight modifications to circuitry and device firmware is all that’s required to Cota-enable devices. The Cota receiver chip also includes power management capabilities that manufacturers can leverage to reduce component cost, required circuit board area, as well as time-to-market, making the industry’s most robust wireless power technology also the easiest to integrate.
“From the first concepts, we believed Cota should use existing network antenna components to receive power,” said Hatem Zeine, CEO of Ossia and inventor of the Cota wireless power solution. “One of the biggest struggles device designers have is the internal ‘real estate’ that limits what can be placed, not only inside smartphones and tablets, but also inside more compact wearable devices, all of which are increasingly thinner and lighter weight. Not only does Cota not take up any of this valuable space by requiring additional components, but by adding remote wireless power, designers can actually decrease the size of the biggest space hog inside the device: the battery. When the device receives power remotely it can be continuously charged, making it possible to use smaller batteries in designs.”
The Cota technology charges many devices at once, regardless of whether a device is stationary or moving – such as a wearable bracelet on someone’s wrist. With its effective radius of 30 feet, a single Cota charging station can simultaneously charge or power all the battery-operated devices in every room of an average home or office suite.
The Cota technology consists of two parts: a charger and a receiver. The Cota receivers built into devices and batteries regularly send out omnidirectional beacon signals. Once the Cota charger receives these beacons, it returns thousands of targeted signals that build pockets of energy at only the precise locations of the beacons’ origins. This pinpoint precision targeting of energy safely and efficiently powers all Cota-equipped devices and batteries within its effective radius, even as they move around the room.
Cota is inherently safe. Tracking beacons use only about 1/10,000th the signal power of Wi-Fi, which itself is a low power signal. Cota’s energy pockets are created using approximately the same signal strength emitted by a mobile phone during a call. The physical properties of wireless signals make Cota power signals naturally avoid anything that absorbs energy, such as people, pets and even plants.
Under license from Ossia, consumer electronics OEMs and ODMs will include Cota receivers in new products and will build their own branded Cota transmitters. Existing battery-powered devices can be easily retrofitted with Cota receivers, even if they are already equipped with one of the three pad-based charging systems. Other companies such as construction and energy businesses are already exploring non-consumer electronics applications for Cota-based, wire-free power.
About Ossia
Ossia is challenging people’s core assumptions about what is possible with wireless power. Ossia’s flagship product, Cota®, redefines wireless power by safely delivering remote, targeted energy to devices as far away as 30 feet. Built on Ossia’s patented smart antenna technology, Cota automatically keeps multiple devices charged without any user intervention, enabling an efficient and truly wire-free, powered-up world, that is always on and always connected. Headquartered in Redmond, Wash., Ossia operated in stealth since its founding in 2008, and publicly launched at Disrupt San Francisco 2013. Visit our website at www.ossiainc.com.
