Renesas innovates wireless charging market with Qualcomm collaboration

Renesas Electronics Corporation is collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies to speed up the mainstream adoption of wireless charging for smartphones.

Reneses is investing in 30W wireless charging capabilities for mid-range smartphones powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 780G 5G Mobile Platform.

This is the second high-power wireless charging smartphone reference design collaboration for the two companies. The first solution, designed for flagship devices, is sampling commercially now.

This latest phase is a significant step that extends the two companies collaboration to bring highly integrated, advanced wireless power features as a standard feature in 5G smartphones from flagship to mainstream devices.

Qualcomm Technologies' 5G mobile reference designs provide turnkey solutions that are intended to facilitate smartphone OEMs to quickly and cost effectively implement fast wireless charging on flagship and mid-range smartphones, with Multi-Time Programmability (MTP) and OTA updates to simplify software development and Qi certification process.

According to the company, the Renesas solution offers the highest integration with more than 85% end-to-end system efficiency, to help expand the reach of wireless power technology to a broader set of customers and simplify the process of adding wireless charging.

Renesas Wireless Power Group vice president and general manager of the mobility infrastructure and IoT power business, Amit Bavisi, says, "We are excited to grow our collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies as part of our journey to developing leading-edge wireless charging solutions and opening up reliable wireless power access for mass adoption.

"Combining our highly integrated 30W technology and Qualcomm Technologies' cutting-edge 5G technology is intended to give OEMs a turnkey solution with best-in-class wireless charging capabilities to make it easier to deliver fast wireless charging technology to the next generation of mid-range smartphones.

Qualcomm Technologies VP of product development, Ev Roach, says, "While collaborating with Renesas, we are focused on delivering more seamless, wireless user experiences moving forward.

"Working together with Renesas, we intend to deliver turnkey fast wireless charging solutions for mainstream mobile devices.

The Renesas P9412 wireless power receiver is a 30W power receiver with a high voltage integrated capacitor divider, offering greater power efficiency with 40% reduction in solution size compared with conventional solutions, and freeing up PCB area for customers to include other features, the company states.

For a safe and fast charging experience, a custom high-power protocol is embedded in the device firmware, allowing the system to authenticate power transfer beyond the 15W defined by WPC EPP standard.

Renesas's Wattshare technology enables the mobile device to become a power source and wirelessly charge accessories in the ecosystem, such as earbuds and smart watches.

Renesas specialises in wireless power solutions for both the Power Receivers (PRx) used in smartphones and other applications, as well as the Power Transmitters (PTx) used in charging pads and automotive in-car applications.