HaloIPT and Drayson to Bring 'Wireless Charging' to Electric Motorsport

HaloIPT today announces a new strategic partnership with Drayson Racing Technologies, the green R&D racing organisation founded by Lord Drayson, former UK Minister for Science and Innovation. The partnership will use HaloIPT's unique wireless charging technology to power high-performance cars as they race around the track.

The partnership with Drayson Racing, which develops and races green motorsport technology, including electric vehicles, aims to pioneer the deployment of dynamic (in-motion) charging of zero emission electric vehicles. The racing cars, fitted with HaloIPT technology, will pick up power wirelessly from transmitters buried under the surface of the road or race track; transferring power directly to the vehicle's electric battery, ensuring that the vehicle receives constant charging on the move.

This innovation is made possible because HaloIPT's tried and tested technology provides a significant tolerance to misalignment over the transmitter pads, automatically adjusting for changing vertical gap. The system has the ability to intelligently distribute power: ensuring a consistent delivery of power at speed.

HaloIPT and Drayson Racing will work together on the development of electric drive-train packages and trackside-charging systems to replace the internal combustion engine and fuel pit stops.

Lord Paul Drayson, co-founder of Drayson Racing said: "Dynamic wireless charging will be a real game-changer, enabling zero emission electric vehicles to race over long periods without the need for heavy batteries. This is a milestone innovation that will have a dramatic effect not just on racing but on the mainstream auto industry. We're looking forward to putting this technology through its paces as it charges electric race cars at speeds of up to 200 mph."

Dr Anthony Thomson, CEO of HaloIPT, said: "HaloIPT's technology has a proven heritage in dynamic charging and we are excited to be transferring this expertise to the electric vehicle market. The deal with Drayson Racing demonstrates the appetite for technology that makes driving an electric car more convenient, and this is certainly the case in the motorsport sector - nothing could be more convenient than a race car that re-fuels itself on the track."

Toyota and WiTricity Form Wireless Battery-charging Alliance

Toyota has entered into a technological collaboration agreement with Massachusetts, United States based WiTricity Corporation* concerning the practical application of automotive wireless charging systems and the promotion of their widespread use. TMC plans to participate in a WiTricity capital increase.

WiTricity's charging technology uses resonance, which allows charging without direct contact and is more efficient than electromagnetic-induction, another wireless technology—but one that requires contact—that is starting to come of age in mobile phone and other chargers. TMC believes that resonance wireless charging is suitable for automobiles and aims for its early practical use.

The collaboration is aimed to accelerate development and eventual implementation of wireless charging for automobiles. The charging of a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle could be as simple and convenient as parking near an embedded charger at a home or in a parking facility.

In the Toyota Global Vision announced in March, TMC expressed its commitment to leading the way to the future of mobility by integrating automobiles, homes and information technology. Wireless charging is just one of the many technologies TMC seeks to develop for the future.

WiTricity

Delphi Showcases Innovative Wireless EV Charging

Delphi Automotive has equipped an electric vehicle with its Delphi Wireless Charging System, a highly efficient wireless energy transfer system featuring technology developed by WiTricity Corporation. Delphi will display the test vehicle at this year's SAE World Congress this week.

"This is a significant advancement in our research and development efforts to offer automotive manufacturers a practical wireless charging solution we believe is superior to others being proposed," said Randy Sumner, director, global hybrid vehicle development, Delphi Packard Electrical/Electronic Architecture. According to Sumner, engineers at Delphi's Customer Technical Center in Champion, Ohio, have installed the Delphi Wireless Charging System on an all-electric THINK City test vehicle, and have confirmed that system performance meets automotive market requirements.

A wireless charging system eliminates the need for a charging cord. Drivers can simply park their electric vehicle over a wireless energy source situated on the garage floor or embedded in a paved parking spot. Other wireless charging systems under development make use of traditional inductive charging, the same technology used in electric toothbrushes, which is based on principles first proposed in the mid-nineteenth century. These systems only work over a limited distance range, require precise accurate parking alignment and can be very large and heavy, making them impractical for widespread use on electric vehicles.

"The Delphi Wireless Charging System offers more practical and flexible installation than traditional inductive systems because it uses highly resonant magnetic coupling, a modern technology that safely and efficiently transfers power over significantly larger distances and can adapt to natural misalignment often associated with vehicle positioning during parking," Sumner said. This means that Delphi charging sources can be buried in pavement, are unaffected by environmental factors such as snow, ice or rain, can accommodate a wide range of vehicle shapes and sizes and their differing ground clearances. The Delphi system is also more forgiving to vehicle parking positions on top of the charger without requiring any moving parts to accommodate. The system transfers energy using an oscillating magnetic field, which is intrinsically safe for humans and animals.

According to Sumner, the system will automatically transfer power to the electric vehicle's battery pack at a rate of 3,300 watts -- the same rate as most residential plug-in chargers -- and is able to do so with the smallest and lightest modules possible. These components are important to minimizing overall vehicle weight and cost while maximizing the driving range of EVs, a critical selling point for automakers.

"We are excited by our testing and validation of the system and believe we have a valuable and unique wireless charging solution that offers the most potential for widespread use in the automotive market. With the support of automotive manufacturers, this technology can be integrated into the next generation of electric vehicles," Sumner said.

Wireless charging technology will need to co-exist with plug-in charging solutions, he added, so that electric vehicle drivers have the ability to charge their vehicle when they are away from their wireless charging source.

Delphi also makes a Portable Electric Vehicle Charger that fits conveniently in the trunk of an electric vehicle. The user-friendly, UL-listed charging system plugs into any standard 120-volt outlet to enable safe electric vehicle battery charging at home or away. The charging unit can also be integrated into stationary charging applications.

Siemens and BMV unveil wireless EV charging station

Siemens and BMW have entered the wireless electric vehicle charging market with their version of inductive technology.

The two firms launched their non-contact charging station at manufacturing fair Hannover Messe last week in advance of a government-funded trial scheme in Berlin planned for June this year.

Inductive charging allows motorists to recharge their electric vehicles’ batteries just by parking their car over the wireless station, making the process quicker and simple, and reducing the changes of wear and tear or damage from vandalism.

Halo IPT, a spin-out from Auckland University, became the first company to launch commercial wireless vehicle technology in November 2011 following more than a decade of trials.

Siemens now intends to test its own 3.6kW charging technology in an electric vehicle to determine what improvements would be needed to integrate the system into series-produced vehicles under real-life conditions.

‘A big obstacle to the expansion of electric mobility is the lack of an extensive and reliable charging infrastructure,’ Siemens said in a statement.

‘Because electric cars have to recharge their batteries more often than vehicles with combustion engines need to refuel, various charging techniques are required that are adapted to the needs of the drivers and vehicles.

‘Siemens’ inductive energy transmission concept would make it possible to automatically recharge vehicles such as taxis waiting at cab stands.’

It added: ‘The associated charging stations can be easily incorporated into practically any setting, making them nearly invisible and effectively protecting them against vandalism and wear and tear.’

The charging stations are connected to the public grid by an underground primary coil. A secondary coil is attached to the car and when the driver starts the charging process, an electric current begins to flow through the primary coil.

The resulting magnetic field induces an electric current in the secondary coil, which recharges the battery. Electricity is transmitted from the grid through all of the components to the battery at an efficiency of more than 90 per cent.

The magnetic field is generated only in an exactly predetermined area between the two coils, which are typically between 8cm and 15cm apart.

The system therefore generates a magnetic field whose strength in and around the vehicle is far below the internationally recommended limit of 6.25 microteslas.

The system could also enable the car to serve as a storage unit where most of the energy it uses is surplus electricity from solar- and wind-power facilities.

Google Testing Wireless EV Charger

Using wireless technology similar to that available in an electric toothbrush, Google is trialing a Plugless Power™ charging station for electric vehicles at its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. Plugless Power is the first electric vehicle (EV) charging system on the market to offer consumers a simple way to charge their EVs with the ease of hands-free, automatic technology.

Developed by Evatran™, LLC, Plugless Power is based on inductive technology, which has been used in electrical transformers for more than 100 years, and streamlines the charging of electric vehicles and extended-range hybrids by eliminating the nuisance of the cord and the plug.

“We are thrilled to have our first public release of the Plugless Power technology installed at Google’s headquarters,” said Tom Hough, co-founder and CEO of Plugless Power. “The interest shown by Google and the cooperation we’ve received to retrofit their EV provides evidence that a simple, convenient charging process is needed for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.”

Google has multiple low-speed electric vehicles for short-range travel around its campus and includes plug-in vehicles in its on-campus employee car-sharing program. The company will initially use the Plugless Power station to charge a retrofitted short-range electric vehicle. Google showed interest in testing the Plugless Power technology and understanding how its features could simplify the charging process for its plug-in EV fleet vehicles.

According to Hough, this first public installation is an important step in bringing the technology to commercial customers, and Evatran is actively seeking other fleet trial opportunities with corporations and municipalities to experience the Plugless Power technology in the third quarter of 2011. Most EV models are eligible for Plugless Power through a simple retrofit process. In addition to fleet distribution, Evatran is currently working with automotive manufacturers to integrate the Plugless Power technology into mass-market EVs by 2012.

SAE taskforce working on standards for wireless EV charging

SAE has launched a taskforce (SAE J2954) on the “Wireless Charging of Electric and Plug-in Electric Vehicles”—i.e. EVs and PHEVs. The taskforce, which launched in October 2010 and began meeting in November 2010, has a goal of delivering the first SAE guideline by end of 2011 for publishing in 2012. Since additional field data is needed for standardization, said Jesse Schneider of BMW, leader of the J2954 effort, a 2012-13 date is estimated for the balloted standard.

The taskforce goal is to establish performance and safety limits for wireless power transfer for automotive applications while establishing a minimum interoperability requirement. The team is currently reviewing the state of the art of wireless charging (e.g., inductive, magnetic resonance) and compiling an interoperability study.

Currently, SAE 1773 defines a standard for EV inductive coupled charging. The standard was based upon specific hardware (paddle charger); vehicle-station bidirectional communication was either RF or IrDA. SAE 1772 specifies a conductive charge coupler standard that is not compatible to ISO standard in Europe.

Standard charging could be in the up to ~4 kW range, Schneider says, with more possible for some passenger vehicles and up to 60 kW Level 3 fast charging for some vehicles (e.g., buses). Passenger vehicles could be wirelessly charged during work, parking garage, home use, similar to conductive charging (such as SAE 1772) at a higher power level, with vehicle approval.

Source: SAE

Wirelessly charges your phone and Tesla Roadster

The future is definitely going to be wireless, and not just when it comes to data. eCoupled has been figuring out ways to power and charge all of your stuff without wires, from cell phones to laptops to Tesla Roadsters.

eCoupled uses what are called induction coils to transfer power between two surfaces without wires. The coils are thin enough that they can be built directly into cases and batteries, and if you've seen wireless chargers from Energizer, they've got eCoupled tech inside.

At CES, Fulton Innovation is displaying a bunch of different ways that their eCoupled inductive technology will make our lives tangle-free in the near future. Laptops and cell phones that power and charge wirelessly using built-in coils are just one aspect of what's possible. eCoupled also has tables and counter tops that provide power directly to things like blenders, and the coils are cheap enough that you can build them into cereal boxes and soup cans to get them to light up and heat themselves.

They've also managed to build an inductive receiver into a Tesla Roadster, which was happily charging in the middle of their booth. Their wireless system is about 90% as efficient as charging with a plug, and is luckily smart enough to shut itself off if your cat crawls under the car, although eCoupled promises that the magnetic fields aren't dangerous. The whole thing is controlled with an iPhone app.

Since the costs of installing a wireless power transmitter are comparable to a standard charging station, eCoupled is hoping that cities and businesses will start installing chargers in parking spots to entice all those electric cars out there to stop in for a quick charge.

KAIST's Road-Embedded Recharger Named Among Best Inventions of 2010

A road-embedded recharger developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology was picked as one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010 by Time magazine.

The U.S. weekly on Thursday released its list of this year's biggest breakthroughs in 10 categories of science, technology and the arts

KAIST's wireless power supply strips are embedded in roadbeds to transfer energy to battery-powered electric vehicles running above. A prototype is now in service at the Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Also on the list are the Apple iPad and Google's driverless car, as well as an English-teaching robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

HaloIPT Launches First Wireless Electric Car Charger

The next generation of electric cars could be charged wirelessly and even powered up as they drive over electrified roads, claims a company backed by engineering giant Arup.

The company, HaloIPT, is the first in the world to bring to market IPT (Inductive Power Transfer) technology which allows cars fitted with a receiver pad to charge automatically when parked over transmitter pads buried into the ground.

IPT systems can also be configured to power all road-based vehicles from small city cars to heavy-goods vehicles and buses.

The technology was launched overnight in London. The first car to be powered with HaloIPT technology will be on display in London until the end of November.

Dr Anthony Thomson, CEO of HaloIPT says the wireless charging pads are designed to function beneath asphalt, submerged in water or covered in ice and snow.

In the future, the technology will be able to be embedded in roads so cars can be charged on the move. This will solve the range issues electric vehicles have and reduce battery size requirements, says Dr Thompson.

Their pioneering technology uses magnetic fields to transfer power instead of cables or brushes.

The IPT technology was developed by The University of Auckland's Power Electronics Group. The group is led by electrical engineers Professor John Boys and Associate Professor Grant Covic from the Faculty of Engineering at the University.

Dr Boys says it was an exciting development and pleasing to see research originally developed in the basement of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Auckland more than 20 years ago (1989) now making it on to the international stage.

HaloIPT

Guardian

Car makers signal interest in wireless EV charging

Car makers are signaling their interest in wireless charging as another piece of the digital cockpit.

In one sign of the road ahead a General Motors executive is chairing a standards effort that hopes to set interoperability standards for the magnetic induction approach. Toyota and Ford managers said they also are interested in the technology and the standards effort.

"I am motivated by the possibility that wireless charging provides drivers convenience and aesthetics," said John Suh who manages an advanced technology office for GM in Silicon Valley and chairs the standards group launched in May by the Consumer Electronics Association.

The CEA effort aims to set a baseline for interoperability for chargers using magnetic coupling. One spec will target connections of less than one centimeter from coil to coil, another will address a two to six centimeter distance. The group will meet here Friday.

The group will also try to define power efficiency and standard nomenclature for different technical approaches. The committee will "look at all the technologies that could provide wireless charging--optical, RF and conductive as well as inductive approaches--. they all provide some benefit, Suh said.

Wireless charging "is in an advanced engineering stage and out of research" at Ford, said John Schneider, a chief engineer at Ford, speaking on a panel at the annual CEA Industry Forum. "We are watching to see if the standards are successful--that’s key," but the company has yet to choose a technology, said Schneider.

Car makers are still working through the costs and use cases for wireless charging, given users often keep mobile devices in a pocket or scharge gadgets overnight at home.

"Wireless charging has not factored in the top ten [in Toyota's user surveys, raher] it's been one of the bottom features people are willing to pay for," said Jon Bucci, a vice president of advanced technology at Toyota. Nevertheless, "our product planners are looking at [wireless charging] deeply," he said.

"The use cases and value is still to be proven," agreed Schneider of Ford. Almost as important, he asked "will Apple support it because unless Apple supports it" it won't be used on millions of iPhones and iPods, he said.

Despite the doubts, wireless charging could be the next step in smartphone services and apps car makers are racing to link to their vehicles. Last year, Ford released a set of APIs to link to its car controls smartphone services like Pandora.

"There will be a Toyota announcement along these lines at CES," said Bucci of Toyota.
In a CES keynote, Ford is also expected to announce more details about its future infotianment systems.

The Chevy Volt to be released in November lets users unlock, start and turn on air conditioning or heat remotely from a smartphone. "These sorts of features will roll out across our other vehicles," said Suh.

Powercast Transmitter Sends Power / Data via RF Wireless Power Link

Powercast Corporation today announced its TX91501 Powercaster(TM) Wireless Power Transmitter which uses the 915-MHz ISM band to transmit common radio waves for power and data in commercial, industrial and defense applications.

As the power source for Powercast's RF energy-harvesting wireless power solution, the TX91501 broadcasts power and data over 40 feet to its companion Powerharvester(R) receivers. Embedded into micro-power devices such as wireless sensors, instrumentation and controls, the Powerharvester receivers convert the received RF energy into DC power for battery-free operation or to wirelessly trickle charge batteries. The receivers also output the data broadcast from the TX91501 as well as the received signal strength indication (RSSI).

Initial versions of the TX91501 transmitter will broadcast a unique ID for device authentication or location-tracking applications, while future versions will also transmit data such as timestamps for end-device synchronization and control.

Powercast's TX91501 transmitter is approved by the FCC (Part 15) and Industry Canada. It can be used to broadcast RF energy for both power and data in numerous energy-harvesting applications such as environmental monitoring, building automation, energy management and industrial monitoring.

The RF signal uses Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) modulation for power and Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) modulation for data. The TX91501 is available in versions with an output of 1 watt or 3 watts Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP).

The 6.75" H x 6.25" W x 1.63" D transmitter includes an integrated 8dBi directional antenna with a 60-degree beam pattern, and the unit mounts easily on either vertical or horizontal surfaces using one of two DC power jacks (bottom or back) and multiple mounting holes. The TX91501 operates immediately when powered on and requires no user configuration or programming. An internal shut-off mechanism automatically stops transmission when objects come close to the device, and an LED indicates transmission status.

Broadcasted RF energy creates a perpetual power source, unlike potentially unreliable solar, heat or vibration energy sources, to provide power-over-distance, one-to-many charging, and controllable wireless power (continuous, scheduled or on-demand). A wire- and battery-free power source enables zero-maintenance devices which deploy to inaccessible locations, and embeds within sealed devices for use in wet or harsh environments.

While a 3 watts wireless power system isn't suitable for an application like EV battery charging, it is interesting to consider the increasing potential of this technology as it scales up in power capacity.

The 1-watt ($235) and 3-watt ($300) versions of the TX91501 Powercaster transmitter are available through Powercast's authorized distributors.

Students develop EV that runs on wireless power

Fourteen students from the University of Karlsruhe, technology and industry have come up with an electric car that runs only with wireless power transmission. Christened as e-Quickie, the three wheeled car resembles a reclining bicycle with a driver capsule.

The interesting thing about the vehicle is it doesn’t get start by the batteries but by leaving the energy conductors on the ground.

The vehicle gets its energy from electric conducting paths on the ground. Receivers underneath the car take energy from the tracks through electric induction, directing it onward to the car’s electrical hub motor.

This is similar to systems being developed by Korea advanced institute of science and technology (KAIST) and Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV)

All the individual components of the car including its steering, breaks and chassis are designed by the students. Apart from these, e-Quickie’s shell is made from the carbon fiber to ensure minimal weight and the optimal aerodynamic efficiency.

The total weight of the car is 60kg, which, as per the project director, can be reduced to 40kg. The car is powered by a 2kw bicycle hub motor and achieves a top speed of 50 km/h. The batteries only serve as a buffer so are much smaller than a typical EV traction battery.

Solar Driver


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Fujitsu Develops High-Efficiency Wireless Charging Systems

Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced the development of wireless recharging technology that enables the design of magnetic resonance-based wireless charging systems that can simultaneously recharge various types of portable electronic devices.

This technology not only promises more compact and more efficient power transmitters and receivers, it also offers the ability to design charging systems in 1/150th the time currently required. In addition to dramatically shortening development times, this technology paves the way to integrating compact wireless charging functions into mobile phones and enabling multiple portable devices to be charged simultaneously without any restrictions on their position with respect to the charger.

Details of this technology are being presented at the 2010 conference of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE), opening September 14 at Osaka Prefecture University.

Background

Wireless charging has become an increasingly desirable technology in recent years, as people are eager to avoid the clutter and inconvenience of using power cables to recharge their mobile phones, digital cameras, notebook computers, and other portable electronics.

Electromagnetic induction and magnetic resonance are the methods most often used for wireless charging. With electromagnetic induction, a magnetic flux is induced between the power-transmitting and power-receiving coils, and operates based on electromotive force. This method has been used in cordless phones, among other equipment. The drawbacks are that the method only works over short distances, and the power transmitter and power receiver need to be in alignment, so it is effectively no different than using a charging station with a wired connection.

By contrast, the magnetic resonance method, which was first proposed in 2006, uses a coil and capacitor as a resonator, transmitting electricity through the magnetic resonance between the power transmitter and power receiver. This method can transmit electricity over a range of up to several meters, and because a single transmitter can power multiple receiving devices, developments are under way for a broad range of potential applications, charging everything from portable electronics to electric cars.

Technological Issues

When designing transmitters and receivers for use with magnetic resonance charging, the size of the device determines the size of the coil, and this, in turn, determines the optimal capacitor capacitance. The effects of stray capacitance, which depends on the shapes of the transmitting and receiving coils, and other forces, such as magnetism in the device's chassis or batteries, exert complex influences over the resonance between the transmitter and receiver. Untangling these influences and resolving them in the design phase takes a significant amount of time. Using a high-end personal computer, just the basic design for a transmitter and receiver can take roughly 24 hours, and the smaller the devices are, the more difficult the computations. This has made magnetic-resonance charging impractical to incorporate into mobile phones, where miniaturized transmitters and receivers are highly prone to external influences.

Furthermore, charging multiple different devices at the same time brings a different set of influences for each device, and analyzing these complex influences has been extremely difficult. Implementing wireless charging for compact portable electronics that require complex designs has been slowed mainly by the technological problems associated with design and analysis.

The Newly Developed Technology

What Fujitsu Laboratories has done is to develop technology that dramatically shortens the time required to design transmitters and receivers for magnetic resonance charging systems and, in addition, enables accurate tuning of resonant conditions in the design phase, even for compact transmitters and receivers that are prone to influences from nearby metallic and magnetic objects.

The new technology has the following characteristics:

1. A magnetic field analysis simulator which analyzes the coil model and a specialized circuit simulator which analyzes the resonance conditions, including the capacitor model, are combined, making it possible to quickly and accurately design wireless charging systems for multiple transmitters and receivers at once using a variety of coil sizes.

2. The design of the wireless charging system can be automated to precisely match the desired resonance requirements, based on an assessment function which maximizes the charging efficiency.

Together, these two technologies represent the world's first practical magnetic resonance design simulator which enables rapid and precise designs for transmitters and receivers according to the desired resonance requirements.

Results

This analysis and design technology was used to design a compact, slim power receiver, and to manufacture prototype mobile phones with built-in wireless charging. The prototype mobile phones can charge anywhere within the power-transmitter's range, regardless of their position in reference to the transmitter, with 85% efficiency.

Charging performance varies with changes in the size of the transmitter's coil in an analysis of the simultaneous charging of multiple devices, where a single transmitter was transmitting to three receivers. This analysis, which found the optimal coil size for efficiently charging three devices, took roughly 10 minutes, or 1/150th the time it had taken before. Even with multiple transmitters and receivers, the design time is dramatically reduced.

Future Development Plans

Fujitsu plans to continue using this analysis and design technology in research and development on wireless charging systems for mobile phones and other portable devices, and plans to bring products using it to market in 2012. The company is also looking at applying the results of this work to fields other than portable electronics, including power transmission between circuit boards or computer chips, and providing mobile charging systems for electric cars.

Wireless Laser powered helicopter hovers for hours

LaserMotive has used a few watts of laser power to keep a 22-gram model helicopter hovering for hours at a time, thus adding to numerous other feats attained with the use of lasers. Though, there are many applications the technology like this could be used for, but LaserMotive’s prime concern is to power space elevators to lift objects into orbit. The traditional UAVs require a lot of power from batteries and fuel, and because solar-powered aircrafts too have limitations in staying afloat for a very long time, this ground-based laser propulsion technology could provide the power to enhance the time in air.

To demonstrate this laser power, LasesMotive at AUVSI Unmanned Systems Conference in Denver, Colorado, “focused light from an array of semiconductor diode near-infrared lasers down to a 7-centimetre beam, which automatically tracked a modified radio-controlled helicopter. The aircraft carried photovoltaic cells optimised for the laser wavelength, which converted about half the laser power reaching them to generate a few watts of electricity – enough to power the rotors of the little copter.”

New Scientist

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Wireless microwave powered rocket lifts off

Scientists in Japan have successfully "launched" a tiny metal rocket using an unusual source of thrust - microwaves. The test was the latest a proof of principle for a kind of propulsion that has never been the beneficiary of the levels of investment poured into traditional chemical rockets, but which its proponents say could some day be a superior way to get spacecraft into orbit.

Sending rockets into space using a combustible mixture of on-board fuel isn't an optimal solution to the problem of escaping Earth's deep gravity well. Not only is it dangerous to strap humans and satellites on top of giant bombs, it's also incredibly wasteful: 90% of the weight of a rocket sitting on the launch pad is fuel. For example, the Space Shuttle burns 50% of it's lift off weight within the first minute of flight.

In the beginning of the 20th century, it occurred to Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky that there was another way: by keeping the energy source on the ground and beaming the required power to a rocket, it could be launched with very little fuel on board.

With the invention of the maser, or microwave laser, scientists were granted a tool to realize Tsiolkovsky's dream. So in the 1970's they began to model just what it would take. Some were optimistic about its potential to decrease the cost of going to orbit by orders of magnitude, but the bottom line is that, for a lack of funding, the technology never took off.

Every few years, however, someone reminds the world that it's at least possible to get a rocket off the ground with little or no fuel. The latest demonstration used a Gyrotron - essentially a maser - at the Naka Fusion Institute of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. (This super high-powered microwave beam emitter was originally developed as part of Japan's contribution to ITER, the international effort to create a workable fusion reactor.)

Using this beam, the scientists were able to send pulses of microwave energy into the bottom of their hollow 126 gram rocket model, heating the air within to 10,000 degrees Celsius and resulting in its rapid expansion. The result is a little boom, "like thunder," they report.


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Rapid growth seen for wireless charging devices

Nearly 235 million electronics devices with wireless charging capability are projected to ship in 2014, a 65-fold increase from the 3.6 million expected to ship this year, according to a forecast by market research firm iSuppli Corp.

ISuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) predicts that a flood of electronic products with wireless charging capability will hit the market in coming years, giving users a break from the myriad of tangled cords used to repower electronic gadgets like mobile phones, notebook PCs, digital cameras and others.

The firm defines product-specific wireless charging systems as those consisting of a charger as well as a so-called "skin" or receiver sold for specific devices. These product-specific devices contrast with aftermarket solutions, which comprise universal chargers and various skins that can be utilized with multiple consumer electronics, according to iSuppli.

"While a number of serious challenges continue to present barriers to immediate wide adoption, wireless chargers will start shipping in meaningful volume this year and then quickly ramp up as the devices achieve greater market acceptance," said Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless research at iSuppli, in a statement.

Among the challenges that need to be overcome, Teng stressed that manufacturers need to consider how to integrate wireless charging into the design of printed circuit boards. Significant adoption of wireless charging technology will be needed to drive down costs, she said.

Teng predicted that wireless charging devices would over the next five years find their way into an increasing number of applications, particularly in mobile phones.

Of the four current wireless charging technologies in place today, magnetic inductive is the most widely adopted, according to iSuppli. Based on the principle of electromagnetic induction, in which current generated from the induced magnetic field in the receiver coil is used to charge devices, the technology enjoys wide support from semiconductor vendors, device manufacturers, accessories makers as well as retailers, according to the firm.

The most successful proponent of magnetic induction is Powermat Inc., a Michigan-based company founded in 2009 that also owned 62 percent share of the wireless charging market in 2009, according to iSuppli.

ISuppli also predicts growth for aftermarket wireless charging, with revenue rising at a massive five-year compound annual growth rate of 133.4 percent, according to the firm.