The term wireless charging has been around since… well, Nikola Tesla attempted to demonstrate it in 1901. For nearly a century after, however, the technology was without many practical uses, except, perhaps, for a few electric toothbrush models.

Over the past decade, wireless charging matured through the formation of various standards groups such as the Wireless Power Consortium, and through mainstream adoption by mobile device makers, such as Samsung in 2014, and finally, Apple in 2017.

To date, wireless charging has consisted of direct-contact charging pads using tightly-coupled induction technology; that combo creates an electromagnetic field between two copper coils. Induction charging, while widely adopted because of Qi and other specifications, greatly limits the placement of a smartphone or other device on a charging pad. Nevertheless, inductive charging has become the de facto industry standard.

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