Molex and NuCurrent Powerlife Wireless Charging Coils | Featured Product Spotlight
Molex PowerLife coils are ultrathin, high-efficiency wireless charging coils that come as a result of the partnership between Molex and NuCurrent.
This Featured Product Spotlight is part of a video series exploring the specifications, applications, and market context of new products.
Molex PowerLife Wireless Charging Coils
Molex PowerLife coils are ultra-thin, high-efficiency wireless charging coils that come as a result of the partnership between Molex and NuCurrent. This partnership leverages Molex's manufacturing, sales, and distribution channels, combined with NuCurrent's wireless charging technology. Molex PowerLife coils are available in different shapes and sizes and can support multiple frequencies in a single product.
If you think about wireless charging, it's typically used to charge small, mobile devices. Given that, there are a couple of things that need to be considered when designing for wireless charging. One is that, quite simply, people are impatient. So wireless charging needs to deliver power as fast as possible, but there needs to be a balance with efficiency. Finally, these small mobile devices are very small, and typically very thin, while many charging coils are relatively large and thick. Molex PowerLife coils help designers address all of these issues.
Coil Efficiency
Efficiency is critical to both fast charging and eco friendliness. Molex PowerLife coils perform 2.5 times better in end-to-end efficiency. This is in part because the multilayer technology leads to lower ESR than competitors, which results in higher q and faster charging. Lower ESR also leads to less heat being generated, so you have lower thermal concerns. This is especially important for devices being handled by the user.
Eco Footprint
With conventional technologies, reducing the footprint usually comes at the cost of increasing ESR. The multilayer technology used in PowerLife allows for a reduced footprint and thickness, while still keeping the ESR minimal.
Manufacturing and Applications
Standard coils typically have the coil on a ferrite material with some adhesives and a release paper. These don’t fit the typical low-cost, automated assembly process. But PowerLife coils are manufactured on a standard PCB or copper flex. Those materials are proven, highly reliable, and highly cost-effective. They're also less susceptible to shock, vibration, and heat and are ideal for high-reliability applications, like automotive, industrial, and medical. And because these are technologies that are so widely used and well-refined, you get much tighter tolerances than the equivalent standard coil. The use of standard materials also allows PowerLife coils to be used in standard assembly processes to combine the wireless charging coil directly with other active components on the PCB to reduce your total assembly and system cost.
Conclusion
PowerLife coils are available in either a dual mode or a tri-mode receiver to support WPC, PMA, and A4WP, and you can also get coils that support NFC. PowerLife coils are compact, efficient, and easy to integrate, helping to improve user experience and reduce component count.
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