TI to demo industry’s first contactless charging eval kit
Dallas, Tex. — Speeding the design of devices that can charge without wires, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) plans to demonstrate what it says is the industry’s first contactless charging evaluation kit at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with Fulton Innovation. The bqTESLA Contactless Charging Evaluation Kit is touted as a high-performance, easy-to-use development kit based on Fulton Innovation’s eCoupled intelligent wireless power technology for the design of low-power contactless charging solutions.
Consisting of a single-channel transmitter, a direct-charge receiver and associated magnetics, the kit enables designers to speed development of contactless charging capability for their end applications, such as smartphones, MP3 players, netbooks and global positioning system (GPS) units.
With no additional software development required, the bqTESLA kit allows true “plug-and-play” design functionality, says TI. A reference guide gives designers recommendations for coil solutions to allow for receiver customization.
The bqTESLA evaluation kit also allows designers to develop systems that are compatible with the future Qi standard under development by the Wireless Power Consortium.
Availability: Designers can order the complete kit or the individual transmitter and receiver evaluation modules.
Pricing: The kit is priced at $250 and is scheduled to be available by the end of first quarter 2010.
Resources: TI’s Power Management Guide and power management portfolio.

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