How Does Wireless Charging Work and Technology Behind It

Wireless charging is transforming the smartphone era. As technology evolves, we’ve been shedding wires easily, from switching to Bluetooth headphones and accessories. With wireless chargers becoming more of an industry-standard, getting the best wireless charger for your phone is essential.

Wireless charging is a more streamlined way of charging and a lot more organized since you’re not constantly worrying about getting tangled up in USB cords or always needing to have a charging cable on you. It’s simple, convenient, and just a lot easier overall. In this post, we’ll give you an overview of how wireless charging pads work and how wireless charging itself works.


How does Wireless Charging work?
Firstly, let’s talk about the technology itself. Understanding how charging pads work relies on looking at the separate parts that make up a wireless charger. A wireless charger is made up of coiled wires around a bar magnet, i.e., an inductor. Once an electric current passes through the wires, an electromagnetic field is created around the magnet, helping transfer a charge.

Qi wireless technology has helped transform wireless charging as well. One of the worries associated with creating wireless chargers was to ensure it only charged a phone - not any foreign objects that could land on the charger, such as coins and pens. To combat this, phones now have Qi wireless technology. A wireless charging station works by communicating to a small receiver in a phone, and essentially the charging pad works by “asking” the device if it’s a Qi receiver.

There are three main methods of wireless charging:

Charging pads: The commonly found wireless charging device on the market, this works through inductive charging.
Charging bowls: An emerging technology, charging bowls rely on resonant electromagnetic charging (i.e., the energy is ‘tunneled’ through coils rather than spread from one primary direction)
Uncoupled RF wireless charging: Charge is transmitted via radio frequency, so no charging plates are needed. This technology is still evolving, so this is something to watch for in the next few years.
When shopping for a wireless charger or a wireless charging pad, the most crucial aspect is the device’s power specs. iPhones and Androids have different limits of charge speeds. iPhones are limited to 7.5W, Samsung at 9W, and some Android phones go up to 10W. Look at the charging speeds a wireless charging device offers to ensure that it’s at the speed you want.