Foreign Object Detection between Wireless Charging pads – How have small research groups accelerated innovation ?

In the previous articles, we have discussed how the growing market of electric vehicles is contributing toward the development of new age technologies. More specifically in the wireless charging technology where industry has witnessed a lot of technological advancements in technologies like power management, alignment, detection of foreign objects and others.

The wireless charging technology has a wide application area and has attracted a lot of ventures and investments in this space. However, the base patents that pertain to specific essential technologies are held by big players and block the road for new entrants from delivering a cost-effective yet efficient product. 

While bringing technical standards in place might mitigate these concerns, complete reliance on the Technical Standards may to the compliance burden for device manufacturers and, they may end up incorporating those patented technologies that are not even essential and/or as efficient as compared to the other available patented technologies that solve a similar problem in a more simplified manner. Nowadays, device manufacturers are looking toward smaller research groups to acquire potentially successful technology from their patent portfolios.

The big question that arises here is- “Are the technologies held by small research groups viable?”

Well, the answer to this question lies in the reassignment data of patents assigned to smaller research groups in the wireless charging technology space.

It is quite interesting to note that out of around 2500+ patents in the domain of detection of foreign objects in between wireless charging pads, more than 125+ patents have been reassigned (or you can simply say, ‘Sold’) to a different company. 

A reassignment trend of Patents in the FOD domain shows that transactions of patents took pace in 2018 after Seiko Epson started selling out its patents to corporates as well as to Non-Practicing Entities, and PowerByProxi was acquired by Apple.

In the past, contract-based manufacturers like Access Business Group have acquired and sold patented technologies to many players device manufacturers. Currently, most of the patents are held/ owned by technology developers / implementors.

Count of patents sold by top companies in Foreign Object Detection Domain in Wireless Charging

However, a few of the leading Technology leaders have also sold their patents to other parties holding compatible technologies in the domain. For example, Seiko Epson has shed out nearly 20 patents in 2018 that address foreign object detection technology, a few to Samsung and others to Non-Practicing Entities.

Count of patents sold by Seiko Epson in Foreign Object Detection Domain 

In this arena of wireless charging technology, one has to understand that it is just not the big players in the market who are calling the shots, but there are a plethora of small firms and companies who are making waves. This industry demands only one thing and that is a product being driven by innovation; if a product is solving a problem by the way of this innovation, the size of the company is immaterial. The point can be proven by considering some instances such as companies like Qualcomm and Apple acquiring small companies.

Korea-based HANRIM POSTECH which launched a Wireless Charger in 2013, has recently sold a few of the patented technologies that relate to Wireless Charging and address FOD technologies to GE and intel. 

PowerbyProxi - a lesser-known wireless charging business from New Zealand has just been purchased by Apple. The Auckland-based company was established in 2007 with the goal of assisting consumers in charging commonplace electronics without needing to plug them in. PowerbyProxi holds more than 9 patents that address the issues related to FOD by comparing the estimated reactive power in the transmitter coil and the estimated real power to a foreign object detection threshold. 

Another group, Fu Da Tong is selling 300W wireless charging modules, and its foreign object detection technology in ICs and Evaluation Boards on the MICROCHIP website, thus confirming the efficient implementation of their patented technologies.

With the growing technology adoption trend, it seems that the electric vehicle charging industry will witness more such reassignments in the coming years.