Energous Granted FCC Approval for Unlimited Distance Over-the-Air Wireless Charging

U.S. certification along with previous approval in Europe enables expansion of ecosystem of wireless power transfer solutions at any distance for Internet of Things devices

SAN JOSE, Calif.--()--Energous Corporation (Nasdaq: WATT), the developer of WattUp®, a revolutionary wireless charging 2.0 technology, today announced that its 900MHz 1W Active Energy Harvesting transmitter technology has received U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Part 15 grant of equipment authorization for wireless power transfer at any distance. This approval complements a similar unlimited distance wireless charging approval in Europe, announced in May, 2021, expanding the ecosystem reach -- including customers, OEM partners and standards organizations -- for WattUp. The 1W Active Energy Harvesting transmitter can charge multiple devices at once, enabling at-any-distance over-the-air charging for the growing ecosystem of Internet of Things devices such as retail sensors, electronic shelf labels, industrial devices and more.

“This FCC certification of our Active Energy Harvesting transmitter technology marks the latest recognition of our efforts to further the regulatory pathway for far field wireless power networks,” said Cesar Johnston, acting CEO at Energous. “Our WattUp active energy harvesting solution provides U.S and European developers an approved wireless charging option when designing the power networks needed to cost effectively and efficiently deploy IoT sensors, low-power CPUs and other devices.”

“Managing and maintaining battery based BLE beacons is one of the biggest impediments to the acceleration of BLE IoT technology adoption. Energy harvesting, batteryless BLE beacons bring a whole new option to the IoT wireless toolbox. Energous’ Active Energy Harvesting transmitting technology is going to significantly increase their range enabling these energy harvesting beacons to work with typical Wi-Fi / BLE deployments in enterprises and open the door to a whole new range of IoT use cases,” said Bob Friday, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Juniper Network's AI-Driven Enterprise Business. “We are excited at the insight that this will bring to our customers when fused together with the patented Juniper Mist vBLE technology that is integrated in our Access Points.”

“As IoT devices continue to become more widespread, especially in the retail setting where the electronic shelf label market is projected to expand over 21% annually to eclipse $2.5B by 2028, demand for new wireless charging options to reduce burdens associated with wired charging is growing,” said Johnson Lee, CEO of E Ink. “Energous’ FCC approval will help the industry bring strong user experiences to customers and we’re excited for this milestone from one of our key partners.”

“Energous provides an ideal source of longer-range wireless power for Wiliot’s battery-free IoT Pixel tags,” said Steve Statler, SVP Marketing at Wiliot. “Their technology provides an affordable, high-performance bridge between Wiliot IoT Pixels and the Wi-Fi gateways that unlock the power of the cloud. To scale the IoT from billions to trillions of connections, flexibility and versatility are key. Energous can power a variety of devices, and Wiliot can work with a variety of radio technologies, including, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LoRa and the newly FCC certified Energous.”

"AirFuel Alliance and Energous are championing the standardization of RF charging while paving the way for product interoperability and infrastructure development,” said Sanjay Gupta, President of AirFuel Alliance. “Just as Wi-Fi is the data backbone for interconnected devices and sensors, we believe that RF-based wireless charging will be the power backbone of the multi-billion-dollar IoT ecosystem."

Dinesh Kithany, chief analyst at Wired and Wireless Technologies (WAWT), states, “This is another important milestone achieved by Energous, and is positive news for the wider distance wireless charging technology sector as well as for device makers in the growing IoT market. FCC approval backed by the company’s earlier European approval will open new opportunities for at-a-distance charging for billions of IoT devices across industrial, retail, healthcare, and smart home applications. As predicted by WAWT’s research, 2021 will be a breakthrough year for ‘distance’ wireless charging market and Energous’ 1W Part 15 FCC certification for power any distance indicates our predictions were accurate.”

The Energous Active Energy Harvesting technology can be deployed as a mesh network to support seamless power transfer for IoT devices over any distances.

Specifically, the solution includes:

  • Energous DA4100 Wireless power transmitter SoC
  • Energous DA3210 power amplifier
  • DA14682 SmartBond™ Bluetooth System on Chip (SoC)
  • Single feed antenna design

For more information on Energous Active Energy Harvesting technology, please visit Energous.com.

About Energous Corporation

Energous Corporation (Nasdaq: WATT) is the global leader of Wireless Charging 2.0 technology. Its award-winning WattUp® solution is the only technology that supports both contact and distance charging through a fully compatible ecosystem. Built atop fast, efficient, and highly scalable RF-based charging technology, WattUp is positioned to offer improvements over older, first-generation coil-based charging technologies in power, efficiency, foreign device detection, freedom of movement and overall cost for consumer electronics, medical devices, retail, military, industrial/commercial IoT, automotive, military, retail and industrial applications. Energous develops silicon-based wireless power transfer (WPT) technologies and customizable reference designs, and provides worldwide regulatory assistance, a reliable supply chain, quality assurance, and sales and technical support to global customers. The company received the world’s first FCC Part 18 certification for at-a-distance wireless charging and has been awarded over 200 patents for its WattUp wireless charging technology to-date.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.5. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may describe our future plans and expectations and are based on the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of Energous. These statements generally use terms such as “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “seek,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate,” “anticipate” or similar terms. Examples of our forward-looking statements in this release include but are not limited to our statements about Energous’ financial results, the future of the global wireless charging industry, our technology or statements about any governmental approvals we may need to operate our business, and statements with respect to its expected functionality and company growth. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from what we expect include: uncertain timing of necessary regulatory approvals; timing of customer product development and market success of customer products; our dependence on distribution partners; and intense industry competition. We urge you to consider those factors, and the other risks and uncertainties described in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q as well as in other documents that may be subsequently filed by Energous, from time to time, with the SEC, in evaluating our forward-looking statements. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent Energous’ views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Energous does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.

Contacts

Energous Investor Relations:
Padilla IR
IR@energous.com

Energous Public Relations :
SHIFT COMMUNICATIONS
Darren Weiss
PR@energous.com

Contacts

Energous Investor Relations:
Padilla IR
IR@energous.com

Energous Public Relations :
SHIFT COMMUNICATIONS
Darren Weiss
PR@energous.com