Energous Profile
Energous Corporation (Energous) provides wireless charging system solutions.
The company has developed its WattUp wireless power technology, consisting of semiconductor chipsets, software controls, hardware designs and antennas, that enables radio frequency- ('RF') based charging for electronic devices. The WattUp technology has a broad spectrum of capabilities to enable the next generation of wireless power networks, delivering power and data in a seamless device portfolio. This includes near field and at-a-distance wireless charging with multiple power levels at various distances. The company's WattUp technologies will help facilitate the deployment of the growing universe of Internet of Things ('IoT') applications. The initial IoT applications that the company is targeting are in the areas of RF tags, electronic shelf labeling ('ESL') and IoT sensors for the retail, industrial, healthcare, and smart home/office markets.
The company's technology is innovative in its approach, in that the company is developing solutions that charge electronic devices using RF. To-date, the company has developed multiple transmitters and receivers, including prototypes, as well as partner production designs. The transmitters vary based on form factor, power specifications and frequencies, while the receivers are designed to support a myriad of wireless charging applications, including Bluetooth tracking tags, IoT sensors, ESLs, beacons, stock management devices, security cameras, handheld devices, smart automation, wearables and hearables.
The first end product featuring the company's technology entered the market in 2019. The company started shipping its first at-a-distance WattUp PowerBridge enabled transmitters for commercial IoT applications in the fourth quarter of 2021, and the company expects additional WattUp-enabled products to be announced as the company moves its business forward.
Business Strategy
The company endeavors to Build multiple integrated circuits ('ICs') to advance the company's technology; develop, license and manufacture a complete transmitter solution to enable wireless power network growth; develop reference designs to reduce early adopter risks, enable easier integration at lower costs and foster adoption; continue to build additional value by converging networking, power and data to provide smarter vertical solutions in the retail, industrial, healthcare and smart/home office markets through the company's WattUp PowerBridge products designed for powering next generation IoT; partner with leading technology and systems companies; provide game-changing benefits to the consumer in terms of utility and convenience; develop and execute on a strategy to gain global regulatory approval for ubiquitous unlimited distance charging; and support the AirFuel Alliance (AFA), which recently announced that AirFuel RF, the radio frequency-based wireless charging technology from AirFuel Alliance, is an industry standard, underpinning the compatibility of the company's WattUp technology across vendors and develop a common user experience at the application level. First target applications include RF tags, ESLs and IoT sensors.
Technology
The company's WattUp technology enables wireless charging ranging from contact-based applications to at-a-distance applications, which charge over the air. An award-winning, RF-based, scalable technology, WattUp transforms the way electronic devices are charged and powered.
The company's small form factor antennas and one transmitter to many receivers capabilities represent significant advantages over RF-beamforming transmitters, which are larger, and higher cost wireless power technology implementations. The company's current generation ICs have significantly reduced the size and cost of both transmitter technology and the company's receiver technology, and products under development are designed to further reduce size and cost. In addition, the company's ICs are designed for both lower-power and higher-power applications, efficiency and faster synchronization, while working within the constraints of multiple international regulatory environments.
In 2022, the company continued to leverage the growing ecosystem of investments made by a number of IoT leaders. While participating at the CES 2023, the company demonstrated the world's first smart football in partnership with Catapult. The company also demonstrated the world's first battery-free CO2 sensor in partnership with Sensirion and a full battery-free sensor for lighting application targeting vertical farming in partnership with ams Osram. The company also upgraded the company's IoT Wireless power network connecting Juniper Mist WiFi Access Points to multiple WattUp PowerBridge transmitters at 1W and 5W. The company showed charging receiver device interoperability by simultaneously powering RF tags from Wiliot controlled by their Sensing as a Service Cloud Software, ESL tags using e-Peas devices, an IoT Device using Atmosic's BLE chips, and network edge computing, driven by Syntiant's Artificial Intelligence voice recognition technology all of which were managed by WattUp Software.
Target Markets
The company categorizes its target markets as transmitter markets and receiver markets.
Transmitter Target Markets
Transmitters are devices that broadcast RF energy that can be accessed by WattUp-enabled receivers in consumer electronics. The company's transmitter target market can be divided into three distinct applications for the company's technology:
Stand-alone transmitters that are either sold independently or bundled as part of a pairing with WattUp-enabled receiver devices;
Transmitters that are integrated into third party industrial, medical and enterprise devices; and
Transmitters that could be integrated into Bridge and Wi-Fi routers to form a single device that provides both connectivity and wire-free power for a particular area.
The company plans to release stand-alone and integrated transmitter technology in three categories:
WattUp Near Field Transmitters:
Because of its advantages over other forms of contact-based wireless charging, including incorporation into multiple form factors and potential compatibility with future distance transmitters, the company expects transmitters using the company's WattUp Near Field technology to be the first WattUp enabled transmitter products on the market. These contact-based charging solutions are ideally suited for many electronic devices in both consumer and industrial markets, such as wearables, IoT devices and other small electronics that require a small form factor receiver and a low-cost charging solution. They are also suitable for larger, more power-hungry devices, such as smart watches and tablets. Initially these transmitters will be one-to-one (one transmitter to one receiver), with future versions being single transmitters for multiple receivers.
WattUp Far Field Transmitters:
Transmitters based on WattUp Far Field technology, which the company refers to as the WattUp PowerBridge, are expected to provide low power charging for multiple devices with the capability of extending the range through the deployment of multiple WattUp PowerBridges. The company expects that WattUp PowerBridge transmitters will have the ability to broadcast wireless power to WattUp enabled receiving devices for charging. WattUp PowerBridge transmitters may play a significant role in the charging of low power IoT devices- such as ESLs, RF tags, security cameras and IoT sensors.
Transmitters Integrated into Third Party Devices:
The 'building block' core architecture developed for the WattUp technology is suited to a broad range of third party devices in both industrial and consumer markets. The flexibility of the architecture in terms of size, power, distance, and cost affords Energous customers the opportunity to match the company's technology with specific requirements and limitations typically found with complex integrations. For example, the WattUp transmit technology could be integrated into a WiFi router on the ceiling of a manufacturing floor or hospital ward providing both internet connectivity and wireless power to any devices within range.
WattUp PowerBridges:
The company sees the combination of wireless power router and the wireless bridges as a natural integration point and a synergistic application of both technologies. WattUp PowerBridges provide the bridge to Wi-Fi, 5G and other Wide Area network technologies while also providing wireless power to in-range receiver devices. WattUp PowerBridges share a number of technical characteristics with Wi-Fi routers in that both devices operate in the airwaves in the unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical bands; both devices owe their success to the utility and convenience they bring to the consumer; both devices rely on antennas; and both devices 'pair' or provide hand off capabilities which allow for networks to provision large sites.
Receiver Target Markets
There are many potential uses for the company's receiver technology, including IOT devices including asset trackers, sensors, retail displays, security devices; smart home, medical, industrial, and other sensors; ESLs; logistics and asset tracking tags and sensors; peripheral devices such as computer mice and keyboards; remote controls; rechargeable lights; gaming consoles and controllers; hearing aids; rechargeable batteries; automotive accessories; smart textiles; wearables; and medical devices.
Intellectual Property
As of March 10, 2023, the Energous IP portfolio contained over 200 issued patents organized along five (5) critical paths to implementation that a competitor may have to navigate to commercialize wireless power technology. The paths are Processing Algorithms, Antenna Designs, Transmitter and Receiver ASICs, Other Software Controls (e.g., Bluetoothâ Management and Hardware (e.g., Board Layout). Further, the company has additional pending patent applications in the U.S. and abroad. So long as the company makes the business decision to continue paying maintenance and/or annuity fees, the company's issued patents have terms that would not expire earlier than 2030.
Government Regulation
The company's wire-free charging technology involves the transmission of power using RF energy, which is subject to regulation by the FCC, international regulators and may be subject to regulation by other federal, state, local and international agencies.
As part of the regulatory approval process, devices incorporating the WattUp technology must obtain approvals under FCC Part 15 and/or FCC Part 18 in the U.S., depending on the specific application. Energous has received Part 15 and Part 18 FCC approvals for WattUp enabled products and has received regulatory approvals from many international agencies.
As of December 31, 2022, the company announced completion of the regulatory process for the company's WattUp PowerBridge wireless charging technology in the U.S., Canada, Europe, India, China, the U.K., Korea, Australia and New Zealand, for unlimited distance wireless charging. As of March 20, 2023, products integrating WattUp technology had received international regulatory approvals over 110 countries.
Research and Development
The company incurred research and development costs of $12,497,781 for 2022.
History
The company was founded in 2012. It was incorporated in Delaware in 2012. The company was formerly known as DvineWave Inc. and changed its name to Energous Corporation in 2014.
