Wireless Power Charging of Wearable, Implanted Devices to be Commercialized

Imagine walking down the street and recharging your smartphone at the same time because you are in range of a “Wi-Po Zone,” a wireless power transmission area. The technology to make this possible is being developed by a KAIST research team led by Professor Rim Chun-taek. They are developing a wireless power transmission technology that they call the Dipole Coil Resonant System (DCRS). BusinessKorea previously reported on their progress back in April. They have already succeeded in sending 209W of electricity from a distance of 5m, which is the furthest wireless power transmission record in the world.

Current long-distance wireless power transmission technology is based on a Coupled Magnetic Resonance System (CMRS) developed at MIT in 2007, and this technology can send 60W of electricity 2.1m through the air. However, this technology has not been able to be commercialized for more than six years due to several factors. The method requires four complex coils (input coil, transmitter coil, receiver coil, and subordinate coil), which must be quite large in size. It also has low efficiency caused by using a high frequency of over 100MHz, and too much sensitivity to external factors like temperature changes.

The research team's work on DCRS is designed to overcome the weaknesses of CMRS. With DCRS, the research team reduced the number of coils to a single transmitter and single receiver coil, which are only 10 percent of the size of the originals, by using dipole-structured high-frequency magnetic substances. Due to less fluctuation in the low frequency used, DCSR is 20 times sturdier against changes in the environment, and much more efficient at the same time.

If this technology is successfully commercialized, wearable devices, medical devices like hearing aids, and even in-body chips will be able to be recharged wirelessly. Applications to various fields are expected.

The research team of Professor Rim aims to expand the transmission range to over 10m through the commercialization of the research results via the support program of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. The research team also plans to establish a company to achieve successful commercialization of the research results.

Professor Rim said, “If this technology is commercialized, wireless power zones can be created nationwide, just like the current Wi-Fi zones. With the complete establishment of a ubiquitous environment through wireless communication and wireless electricity, Korea can become the true global IT leader.”